Another startup, Modern Meadow, is using tissue-engineering technique to produce in-vitro leather and meat without requiring the raising, slaughtering, and transporting animals.

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Germeshausen Professor of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering at MIT, is a founder of the budding field of tissue engineering--of restoring, maintaining and improving tissue by growing it, in vitro, on a biodegradable polymer (plastic) scaffold.

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As she accepted the Intellectual Property Owner's Association 's 27th Annual Inventor of the Year award on June 28 for her work in tissue engineering--she is the first individual woman to win the award--her Donna Reed-style hair and her concerned expression made her look like a doctor about to apply a Band-Aid.

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It is the way tissue engineering should be going - getting the body to regenerate itself rather than trying to grow complex body parts in a test tube.

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In particular, the potential for mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) to differentiate into multiple phenotypes - like fat, cartilage and bone - make them ideal building blocks for bone and cartilage tissue engineering in orthopaedics and rheumatology.

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