Bioengineer Advancements Helping Wounded Soldiers

Huffington Post Article

Bioengineers with funding from Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine, AFIRM, are making huge advancements in the medical field to help the healing process of wounded soldiers. Some of the recent advancements include a soon to be FDA approved method of regrowing ears for soldiers without ears, doctors are testing spray-on skin cells and lay-on tissue to help burn victims, and using pigs to help regrow parts of soldiers missing thigh muscle. One of the most interesting advancements is that Dr. Stephen Badylak is implanting extracellular matrix to help the body reestablish muscle mass by "change its thought process" from "I need to respond to injured tissue" to "I need to rebuild this tissue." With the implanted extracellular matrix, there is a less chance for the body to reject it, because it is only creating a better environment for cells to rebuild the tissue rather than implanting actual cells into the site.

This article was really interesting to me because I personally know soldiers who have come back from war as wounded soldiers by living near Fort Hood in central Texas. These men sacrifice so much for us and unfortunately some of them come back home missing limbs, ears, chunks of muscle and with severe burns. Advancements like these that give men and women a more comfortable life after their sacrifices for America are always a blessing and always important.