British experts are growing human body parts like nose and ears in laboratory, Daily Mail reported Sunday.
"This is a nose we're growing for a patient next month," professor Alexander Seifalian says matter-of-factly, plucking a petri dish from the bench beside him.
Inside is an utterly lifelike appendage, swimming in red goo. Alongside it is another dish containing an ear. "It's a world first," he says smiling.
His lab is little more than a series of worn wooden desktops strewn with beakers, solutions, taps, medical jars, tubing and looks like a school chemistry lab.
But it's from here that Seifalian leads University College London's Department of Nanotechnology and Regenerative Medicine.
When the nose is transferred to the patient, it doesn't go directly onto the face but will be placed inside a balloon inserted beneath the skin on their arm.
After four weeks, during which time skin and blood vessels can grow, the nose can be monitored, then it can be transplanted to the face.
At the cutting edge of modern medicine, Seifalian and his team are focusing on growing replacement organs and body parts to order using a patient's own cells. There will be no more waiting for donors - just a quick swap, the newspaper added.