Never heard of it? Just wait. You will.
Professor Paul Sharpe of Guy's Hospital in London has, for many years, been laboring to understand how it is that teeth form and grow.
True, we enter the world without visible teeth, but hidden in a baby's gums are "proto-teeth," which will eventually begin growing and become our teeth.
These proto-teeth derive from an interaction between two basic cell types, called epithelial and mesenchymal cells.
Sharpe takes human neural stem cells and then overlays them with oral epithelium.
The oral epithelial cells are already genetically programmed to become part of a tooth, and they "instruct" the stem cells to turn into oral mesenchymal cells.
When the resulting proto-teeth are transplanted into a mouse kidney, they turn into teeth.
Sharpe believes that it will soon become possible to implant a proto-tooth into a patient's gum, in place of a lost or removed tooth.
It would then grow, form roots that would attach themselves to the jaw, and eventually erupt into the mouth in only a few weeks.
Before this can happen, however, Sharpe and his team need to activate the appropriate genes in the proto-tooth.
To do this, the scientists need to identify which of the thousands of genes involved in the development of a tooth begin the cascade of pre-programmed instruction starting the growth activation sequence.
Sharpe has started a company called Odontis to commercialize his discoveries. [via The Economist]
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