Doctor Thomas Wight and his colleagues at the Benaroya Research Institute have made what could be a life-changing discovery. The process is called "Engineered Elastogenesis," and the researchers have figured out how to grow skin tissue using the protein "elastin."

"What we're trying to do is utilize that scientific information to manufacture replacement parts," Wight tells KOMO News.

And in this case, the team is hoping its new, skin-like material can be used to replace bad blood vessels. But when you visit the lab, you'll likely see something a little out of place.

"This idea came from looking in my mailbox," says researcher Robert Vernon, who couldn't help but notice the grooves on the inside of his mailbox. He needed grooves for his "tissue-growing" project, but those were too big.

"Our question was 'What can we use as a grooved surface, without spending a lot of money?'" Vernon says.

The answer was found in the discount bin at the record store down the street. The team is applying its material to vinyl records, and the results are perfectly groovy.

"It turns out they have exactly the right shape and dimension such the cells will respond to it," Vernon says.

What kind of vinyl? Today he's using a Justin Timberlake album.

"He just happened to be inexpensive," Vernon says with a smile.

"A lot of scientific discovery, although we'd like to think of as well planned, comes from serendipity," Wight says. "You'll be doing one thing, and whoops, all of a sudden it's something else."