Question: is it possible to eventuly grow organs in the human body?

Jeremy Green answered on 14 Jun 2011:

Yes, almost certainly, although not for a while (10-20 years).

Some organs regrow themselves quite well (the liver is famous for this) and most are constantly repairing themselves because they contain their own supply of specialised stem cells. For example the lining of the gut or the skin. We are beginning to understand the basic principles of how you get all the types of cell in organs, although putting that into practice with human cells is still very difficult. Understanding how to put the architecture of organs (each of which contains many different cell types) is ten times more difficult, but science is definitely heading in that direction. That’s what we’re aiming to do in my lab, but it is really really early in that process of understanding.