A New Organ Has Been Discovered Thanks To Irish Scientists

A brand new organ has been discovered in the human body, thanks to a discovery made at the University of Limerick.

According to the Independent, the new find has been hiding in plain sight inside our bodies this whole time. The organ, in question, is known as the 'mesentery', and it was previously considered to be just a few fragmented structures, located in the digestive system.

But now, scientists at UL have realised it is in fact one, continuous organ. Its function still, however, remains unclear.

The discovery opens up “a whole new area of science,” according to J Calvin Coffey, a researcher at the UL who first discovered it. His work has since been published in The Lancet medical journal.

When we approach it like every other organ… we can categorise abdominal disease in terms of this organ. Now we have established anatomy and the structure. The next step is the function. If you understand the function you can identify abnormal function, and then you have disease. Put them all together and you have the field of mesenteric science.

Gray’s Anatomy, the world’s most famous medical textbook, has been updated to include the new definition.

Medical students and researchers can now investigate what exact role the mesentery might play in abdominal diseases, hoping it could ultimately lead to new treatments.

A big day for medical science in Ireland!