Scientists have successfully grown penises in a laboratory and say they could be tested on humans within five years.

The organs would be used to help men who have suffered a serious injury to the region, had surgery for cancer or are suffering from a congenital abnormality.

The work is being carried out the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, North Carolina

Scientists there are now assessing engineered penises for safety, function and durability, The Guardian reports.

It is hoped the US Food and Drug Administration will give the green light for testing on humans within five years.

Earlier this year, the same team of researchers declared they had successfully grown vaginas in a laboratory and implanted them into four teenage patients.

the_5th_ape wrote:Scientists say organs could be tested on humans within five years

Scientists have successfully grown penises in a laboratory and say they could be tested on humans within five years.

The organs would be used to help men who have suffered a serious injury to the region, had surgery for cancer or are suffering from a congenital abnormality.

The work is being carried out the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, North Carolina

Scientists there are now assessing engineered penises for safety, function and durability, The Guardian reports.

It is hoped the US Food and Drug Administration will give the green light for testing on humans within five years.

Earlier this year, the same team of researchers declared they had successfully grown vaginas in a laboratory and implanted them into four teenage patients.

Penises grown in laboratories could soon be tested on men by scientists developing technology to help people with congenital abnormalities, or who have undergone surgery for aggressive cancer or suffered traumatic injury.

Researchers at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, are assessing engineered penises for safety, function and durability. They hope to receive approval from the US Food and Drug Administration and to move to human testing within five years.

Professor Anthony Atala, director of the institute, oversaw the team's successful engineering of penises for rabbits in 2008. "The rabbit studies were very encouraging," he said, "but to get approval for humans we need all the safety and quality assurance data, we need to show that the materials aren't toxic, and we have to spell out the manufacturing process, step by step."

The penises would be grown using a patient's own cells to avoid the high risk of immunological rejection after organ transplantation from another individual. Cells taken from the remainder of the patient's penis would be grown in culture for four to six weeks.