Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital’s Center for Engineering cleared live cells from liver tissue to leave a framework. They “re-seeded” healthy liver tissue into the framework, where tissues eventually regenerated.

The goal is for the tissue to attach to host tissues, where it would take root and redevelop unhealthy tissue. Although experimentation is in its early stages, the method was successful in laboratory rats.

“As far as we know, a transplantable liver graft has never been constructed in a laboratory setting before,” lead researcher Dr. Korkut Uygun told BBC News.

If it proved effective in humans, it could be a realistic answer to the donor organ shortage. Roughly 15,000 people are in need of a new liver each year, while the actual number available is a mere 4,500. This method could help make previously rejected organs acceptable for transplant.

“We haven’t been able to go beyond several hours in the rats,” Uygun says, “but it’s a great start.”

Want to know more? See Uygun’s article in Nature Medicine.

“It’s not that the world doesn’t know how to save the 350,000 mothers and 3 million newborns that die every year,” she told The Seattle Times. “It is that we haven’t tried hard enough.”

These numbers have dropped by about 30 percent since 1980, but according to this year’s Countdown to 2015 report by the World Health Organization nearly 2 million deaths occur each year as a result of childbirth and labor complications alone. For many countries, maternal and infant mortality rates remain unchanged.

Hemorrhage and hypertension top the list of causes for maternal death, followed shortly by HIV/AIDS, malaria, and heart disease. Infection after childbirth also presents a threat to mothers, while pneumonia, malaria and diarrhea pose the greatest threats to newborns.

Women Deliver, the advocacy group that received the donation, has set goals to help increase maternal survival. Methods include greater access to family planning tools, prenatal care and access to better healthcare. They also hope to change attitudes about maternal death.

"In many countries the belief that death is inevitable, and therefore acceptable, hasn't yet changed," Gates told MSNBC. "We don't have to tolerate fatalism.”

Read more from MSNBC and The Seattle Times, or learn how you can help by visiting Women Deliver online.

About two thirds of Americans over age 20 are overweight or obese, and this fact translates into a plethora of health problems such as diabetes, high cholesterol and heart disease. A cheeseburger here and skipping a workout there, and before you know it your slacks are a little tighter than they were last year. Breaking these habits isn’t easy, either.

That’s where the Leonard Davis Institute’s Center for Health Incentives at the University Pennsylvania steps in. The center is dedicated to uncovering effective ways to push people toward good health.

Dr. Kevin Volpp, director of the program, says there’s been an explosion of interest in programs that encourage employees to live healthier lifestyles. According to an article by MSBC, about a third of U.S. companies are rewarding workers to enroll in get-healthy programs.

Enrollment has exploded, too. In workplaces like Ohio Health, almost half of the workforce in five hospitals is being rewarded to walk their way to fitness. Volpp says the key is finding an effective motivator.

“When trying to get people to lose weight, we’re basically asking them to do less of the things that on some level they enjoy,” he told Boston Magazine. And who doesn’t enjoy a little extra cash in the bank?

For now there have only been a handful of studies to investigate the effectiveness of these incentives. Results are mixed across the board. Some participants lose little or no weight, while others lose ten or more pounds in just a few months. As these programs grow and develop, Volpp believes attitudes will change and the programs will become more effective.

To read more, visit MSNBC or learn more about Volpp’s research at the Center for Health Incentives.