The rat with a human ear on its back that could revolutionise facial reconstruction

Scientists have manged to grow replacement ears in a lab for the first time. The breakthrough at Massachusetts General Hospital could give new hope to those who have lost ears in explosions or accidents. The team says the ears are identical to a patient's own, and hope the first could be implanted within a year. They say a matching ear grown from a patient's own cells would be a huge improvement on prosthetic ears that don't look or feel natural. People have been working on growing ears for 20 years but haven't been able to overcome obstacles to making it practical, said Cathryn Sundback, director of the tissue engineering lab at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Sundback's lab thinks it has found the solution.