Growing Fingers and Limbs in the Lab

The human finger is a remarkable system that performs numerous functions, including structural support and movement. It is composed of many tissues, including bone, cartilage, tendon, muscle, fat, nerve and blood vessels. Amputated fingers and toes do not spontaneously re-grow in adult humans, as they do in some animals, and replacement with prosthetics is often unsatisfactory.

Engineering new digits is a complicated process, but theoretically possible using conventional techniques. We have successfully engineered muscle, bone and blood vessels in the laboratory and have combined them to replace a small segment of a digit in an experimental model.

Our goal is to one day “sew” these components together – or learn to engineer them as a unit – to replace fingers and limbs in humans.