Credit: COURTESY OF TERRY SHARRER (FLASK), GRETCHEN DARLINGTON (INSET)" /> Credit: COURTESY OF TERRY SHARRER (FLASK), GRETCHEN DARLINGTON (INSET) Growing cells outside the body began in 1907 with the work of Ross Harrison at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and continued in the hands of Alexis Carrel and Montrose Burrows at the Rockefeller Institute. These investigators figured out the nutrient solutions that kept cells alive for extended periods of time and allowed them to

Illustration: A. Canamucio Orphan diseases are those with patient populations so small that drug companies generally don't make money if they come up with a remedy. The National Organization for Rare Disorders lists 1,100 of these afflictions in its database, from Aarskog syndrome, an extremely rare birth defect with structural abnormalities and mild mental retardation, to Zollinger Ellison syndrome, presenting gastric tumors that secrete excessive hormone amounts. Subsets of rare disorders, suc