The National Polytechnic Institute says its researchers have regenerated bone, cartilage, muscle and fat tissue from stem cells taken out of bone marrow.
Here’s how it actually works 👇
The cells are drawn with a needle from the iliac crest — the ridge of your hip bone. Among them are mesenchymal stem cells, which exist there in very small numbers. The team expands those cells in the lab until there are enough to work with.
Then comes the clever part: plastic “scaffolds” printed on a 3D printer. The cells are placed onto these custom frames, which guide them into growing into specific shapes of new bone, connective tissue and muscle — shaped to fit a fracture that never healed, or a specific organ.
The man leading it knows this territory. Jorge Vela Ojeda holds a doctorate in Chemical-Biological Sciences, sits at Level III of Mexico’s national research system, and spent 23 years running the Hematology Department at Centro Médico Nacional “La Raza.” He co-directs the project with Elba Reyes Maldonado, coordinator of the Hematopathology specialty. Both are at the IPN’s National School of Biological Sciences, working with the School of Medicine and the IMSS.
He also expects artificial intelligence to speed this field up considerably in the lab.
So why celebrate? Because this is careful, serious work coming out of a Mexican public institution, led by people with decades in the field — aiming squarely at injuries that medicine still can’t fix. 🇲🇽
📌 Source: IPN Communiqué No. 11 — March 8, 2026
