Thirty-year-old Claudia Castillo was hospitalised in March, after a bout of tuberculosis caused her airways to collapse, causing acute shortness of breath that left her unable to care for her two children, or live a normal life. A European team of doctors (from the universities of Barcelona, Bristol, Padua and Milan) came to her rescue, successfully transplanting the first tissue-engineered windpipe (with cartilage constructed from Castillo’s own stem cells). Fears of rejection were put to rest just a few days after the operation, as the graft was almost indistinguishable from adjoining normal bronchi, and blood vessels also grew back successfully — proving that adult stem cells, combined with biologically compatible materials could be worth the decades of medical energy invested in studying them. With this spectacular surgery, what was so far a laboratory dream, has entered the realm of life-saving possibility.

Stem cells have long been regarded as a possible medical magic wand — as “source cells” with the capacity to replace human tissues and organs, and undo the damage of severe disease. (They are called stems because they are the stalks which branch out and diversify into specialised cells). Unlike embryonic stem cells, which are mired in politics in countries like the United States (some argue that embryos are morally equivalent to a human life), this kind of limited stem cells taken from the patient’s own bone marrow do not present an ethical conundrum.

Now, Claudia Castillo can draw great lungfuls of air again, and even reported having danced all night in an Ibiza nightclub. Her story will certainly give new hope to patients all over the world. As she should. The idea that it is now possible to construct an entire working bodily organ from its own constituting materials, is nothing short of breathtaking.