Bio-engineered penises are making advancement

[SplitDik (imported)]

I posted a couple years back where they were able to grow a functional rabbit penis in a lab, now they're getting closer to a human penis. Imagine the possibilities (I imagine it would be especially popular for general penis enlargement), but of course people here can think of other fun things.

http://www.newser.com/story/196827/scie ... penis.html

Scientists Close In on Lab-Grown Human Penis

THEY'VE HAD SUCCESS WITH RABBITS, ARE APPROACHING FIRST CLINICAL TRIALS

By Elizabeth Armstrong Moore, Newser Staff

Posted Oct 6, 2014 8:59 AM CDT

STORY COMMENTS (61)

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(NEWSER) – If you think a bio-penis is only for guys who've run into angry, knife-wielding partners, think again. Genetic defects, penile cancer surgery, trauma, and even erectile dysfunction are all reasons a sizable number of men might opt for a bioengineered penis. A team of researchers has done it successfully with lab rabbits, reports the Wake Forest School of Medicine, and they've spent the past six years scaling up so that a human patient might soon have a penis made from his own cells biopsied from salvageable tissue and then grown in culture and ultimately transplanted, reports the Guardian. If it sounds easy, well, it's not: The penis is a pretty intricate organ.

At the bottom of the order of architectural complexity are flat structures (think skin); next up, cylindrical structures (e.g., vagina); then hollow, non-tubular ones (bladder); and finally solid, dense organs, of which the penis is wholeheartedly both. Then add the fact that it includes spongy erectile tissue, and that erections involve the dilating of blood vessels that fill tissue and the stiffening and lengthening of the entire organ. But in spite of the seemingly insurmountable hurdles, the researchers, who hope to be within five years of the first clinical trials, say their bioengineered penis is far superior to the two main options today: a penis constructed from muscle in one's thigh or forearm using either malleable rods where the penis is always semi-erect or inflatable rods with a pump in the scrotum. (Meanwhile, the rapper who cut off his own penis in April says the little that remains still gets hard.)

[Obscuron (imported)]

As a scientist and all-around nerd, I think this is cool. On a personal level, I don't actually use the one I have (actually, I haven't even seen it in four months, since it is locked in a stainless steal housing). On they other hand, if they could build one for my old lady, that could be no end of amusing...

As someone who occasionally writes research grant proposals, though, I only dream that I could put the word "penis" in the title...

[micdavi24 (imported)]

I wonder whether in time they will consider bio engineering a clitoris for women who have suffered FGM.

[GenChick (imported)]

Scientists from Melbourne (Australia) promised in 2001 that it would be possible for women to grow their own breast implants. They were growing the tissue within the body itself. Worked on mice.

Never heard of them since!

[gandalf (imported)]

Hmmm. If they are successful in the penis growth experiment, I wonder if it would be possible for the scientisits to create a vagina for men who want one. That is, after the man has become a nullo and THEN decided he wanted the vagina,