Dr. Anthony Atala has one of the more sci-fi sounding jobs on the planet: He grows heart valves, muscles, and fingers for human transplant. Even more fascinating, Dr. Atala's patients are often babies--he's a pediatric surgeon, and director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine. In this video, from Fast Company's Most Creative People conference in June, Dr. Atala talks about his pioneering method of painting layers of cells together--"like baking a cake"--to grow organs that save lives.

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Anthony Atala | Most Creative People 2009