Through a new research, scientists have grown closer in achieving the goal of producing replacement human organs like heart, kidney, or bowels through a protein in patient’s own stem cells.

Researchers from Monash University in Australia discovered that the protein called Meox1, is usually found in stem cells and plays a fundamental role in promoting muscle growth. In future, this discovery could help save thousands of lives of people who die due to no organ transplant.

The initial experiments were conducted on zebrafish – a fish which is often used as human model due to its exceptional biological likeness. The fishes contains two eyes, mouth, brain, muscles, blood, bones, teeth and organs like kidney and heart along with 70% human genes, as per Science Alert.

Through examining the zebrafish, the scientists saw how the stem cells and Meox1 works. The lead researcher Peter Currie said, “Prior to our work in this field, we didn't even know that these growth-specific stem cells existed or how they were used, just knowing that they exist leads us to the possibility of orchestrating them, controlling them, or reactivating them to re-grow damaged tissue.”

However, only a few particular stem cells grow most of the necessary organ tissue, and Meox1 helps to pick those cells.

According to their research published in Cell Stem Cell, the researchers say that the method of organ growth gets regulated by stem cells is “one of the last frontiers of developmental biology.”

However, the researchers still believe that though being a step closer, the process of successfully reaching their goal when it can be able to produce replacement organs in labs is still going to take some time, stated the university’s official website.