Fusion of approaches to the treatment of organ failure

Because organ transplantation is the preferred treatment for organ failure, the demand for human organs for transplantation is large and growing. From this demand, several fields based on new technologies for the replacement or repair of damaged tissues and organs have emerged. These fields include stem cell biology, cloning, tissue engineering and xenotransplantation. Here we evaluate the potential contribution of these to the devising of alternative approaches to organ replacement. We present our vision for the development of two structurally complex organs -the lung and the kidney - based on a 'fusion' of new and established technologies.