Researchers at Tokyo University recently reported that they succeeded in growing an artificial eye in tadpoles.
Led by biology professor Makoto Asashima, the researchers said they soaked undifferentiated cells from a frog embryo in a special medium, and then implanted them into a tadpole whose left eye had been removed.
After a week, Asashima reports that the cell was connected to the optic nerve and there was no sign that it had been rejected.
Unfortunately although it garnered a lot of headlines last week, this research has yet to be published or accepted by a peer reviewed journal and as a result it is a bit difficult to figure out exactly what, if anything, these researchers accomplished.
Source:
Scientists ‘create artificial eyeball.’ Charles Scanlon, The BBC, January 5, 2002.
Scientists claim to growth artificial eye. Reuters, January 5, 2002.