Scientists Successfully Grow Human Tooth in Lab, With Aim of Implanting in Humans

Image by Getty / Futurism Developments Scientists at King's College London say they've successfully grown a human tooth in a lab for the first time. As detailed in a paper published in the journal ACS Macro Letters, the team said it uncovered a potential way to regrow teeth in humans as a natural alternative to conventional dental fillings and implants, research they say could "revolutionize dental care." The researchers claim they've developed a new type of material that enables cells to communicate with one another, essentially allowing one cell to "tell" another to differentiate itself into a new tooth cell. In other words, it mimics the way teeth grow naturally, an ability we lose as we grow older. "We developed this material in collaboration with Imperial College to replicate the environment around the cells in the body, known as the matrix," explained author and King’s College London PhD student Xuechen Zhang in a statement. "This meant that when we introduced the cultured c ... Read full article.