Transplants and replacements of tissues and vessels in the body has long been in arduous task for surgeons and others working in medicine. It involves surgeons manually constructing implants and using a cement-like substance in order for it to fit perfectly where the patient needs it to fit. This unenviable process becomes even harder when surgeons have to construct complete organs which have elaborate structures. The existing process is ineffective and time-consuming, and as a result eighteen Americans die every year.
Enter a new cutting-edge technology: the 3D Printer. Renowned for their recent constructions of various items such as cars, food, and musical instruments, 3D Printers are now being used in medicine. As 3D Printers are far more precise than human construction, the use of 3D Printers in the field could be a promising boost to the current transplant processes. 3D Printing of organs hasn’t been perfected yet, but the technology is already capable of manufacturing organ tissues.
The 3D Printing process for tissues, called bioprinting, involves harvesting necessary cells from stem cells and letting them multiply in number. The resulting cells are fed into a 3D printer, which arranges and prints the precisely into the needed three dimensional structure for the tissue. The surgeons then insert the tissue into the body, where it meshes in with the tissues already in the area of the tissue transplant. The printing of the tissues is an extremely quick process- it sometimes takes only 45 minutes.
Experts in the field speculate that in the coming years there will be a swift development in the use of bioprinting. Funded by grants from governments and research foundations, the race to complete new advancements in bioprinting is on. Universities have worked on a project that uses printed tissue to imitate functions of the most important organs in the body. Many companies and research firms are on the edge of creating their own authentic bioprinted organs to use for transplants or drug testing. The possibilities in the field for the near future are endless!
I chose this article because my family and I are interested in a lot of the new innovations out there, and after seeing the 3D Printer at last year’s Maker Faire, we started following the growth of the 3D Printer. This article just shows another example of how the 3D Printer will come to revolutionize the world.
An artificial ear made by printing
This is a very interesting article! I have a few questions though. If this printer is able to produce artificial organs, how would it be able to replicate the functions of of actual organs? And if this new technology were to be made readily available to all people, how much would it cost?
ReplyDeleteThe 3D printer, a relatively new concept, has already had such a large and profound impact on our lives. It has been called the "internet" of the 21st century due to its near limitless applications. This article furthered my agreement with the importance of this technological phenomenon.
ReplyDeleteThe 3D printer's phenomenal growth in adoption has really intrigued me, and I really did underestimate its capabilities in the medical field. Even though your article was very informative, I still did have some questions. Are "authentic bioprinted organ" designs copyrighted or patented and do the plans for a structure of an organ have to be compiled in a computer file before the actual printing of the stem cells into organs?
ReplyDeleteThe idea that we can "print" tissues sounds weird enough, but to hear that it actually works holds it at a whole new level. At this rate, we are steps away from creating the first artificial human. Even though it morally sounds wrong, we can control life like how we imagine god does with us. Truly revolutionary.
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