Damaged tissue that simply grows back: What is real everyday life for some species in the animal kingdom remains a nice dream for humans. We can only regrow lost tissue to a limited extent – for example, in the case of skin and liver. Our goal is to produce tissue and spare parts for the body in the laboratory in order to save the lives of seriously ill people. This process is known as tissue engineering. Whereby we cultivate natural tissues in the laboratory in order to use them for therapeutic purposes in regenerative medicine. In this way, damaged tissue in the body can be repaired or even replaced. Our hopes are pinned on the all-rounders among cells: stem cells. In the meantime, we can obtain so-called induced pluripotent stem cells from body cells in a relatively simple way. From these stem cells, we in turn grow nerve or heart cells, for example.