Re: So they've "solved" a problem that does not really exist?
Thank you for pointing out my spelling mistake. Now let me point out a few of your misunderstandings.
"Regenerative medicine — the ability to regrow faulty organs — is a bit of a holy grail in medicine. "
Indeed, there's a serious amount of money to be made from it.
Spinal cords, the GI tract, lungs, hearts, down to veins and arteries. All are under development by the process of stripping living cells from existing cartilage structures and seeding with precursor cells of that type. Some have no substitutes apart from organ donation. Others have limited capability. The lens of the eye can be replaced both by artificial media and organ donations and has been for decades.
"Not only is the achievement itself of tremendous value to a large number of human beings,"
If they can afford it, otherwise it's not. I suspect the parents of the children in this study would have been able to afford the treatment if it was not an experimental trial.The number of people with this condition from Mogadishu to Alabama suggests it's all about the money.
"it may be a step towards further advances in this area."
Now that actually might be true. As a structural model it seems about as simple a piece of the human body as you can get that performs a useful function and you directly apply drugs to.
My initial take was this solves a problem that already has a 90% success rate in a clever but very expensive way.
I remain underwhelmed. Please feel free to be as excited as you want to be.