3D Organ Printing Is Just Around The Corner!

Printing copies of the original organs nature gave us... Organ printing sounds like the ultimate science-fiction, yet it isn't. 3D organ printing is considered the future of tissue engineering. Some "bioink" made of the transplant patient's stem cells, a 3D printer, and you're all set! Layer after layer, the organ is forming out of the 3D printer... "Bioink" is composed of 10 to 30 thousand of cells. You assemble the human cells into the desired shape... A printer that prints words out can print organs out... organs for purposes of transplant... The biological material that is printed out into the requested shape is able to self-organize... You build a 3D printed organ the same way a skyscraper is being built, storey after storey, floor after floor... The individual layers of cells end-up fusing together... Sounds kind of magic, doesn't it? Replacing any damaged organ, with the new one being printed out of the patient's very own cells shows a huge advantage: the chance of organ rejection is very low...

Will sheets of cardiac tissue, printed out of a 3D printer, and attached to a patient's damaged heart, do better than an expensive artificial heart (Carmat)?

Heavy smokers and drinkers will be able to replace their lungs and liver... Yeah well, I'd say we'd better stay out of trouble... 'cause this technology is ready in the lab, but they have to try it out... There'll be clinical cases on animals (animal "labs") and later on humans... so I guess this is gonna take a while... We don't want patients on dialysis to become sicker than they were before just because they got a new 3D printed kidney...

What was science-fiction 50 years ago is... close to reality. Hence, transplant surgeons will have to re-learn their job (going digital! sounds exciting, doesn't it?), Big Pharma will have to invest in stem cells, genomics and regenerative medicine and 3D bioprinting, instead of counting on the immune system drugs to bring in the loot... I guess Organovo, the (so far) worldwide leading 3D bioprinting company (don't forget the Chinese!!), will sell bioengineered ("artificial") human biological material to "Big Pharma", which will enable pharmaceutical companies to test their new drugs on bioengineered human tissue instead of testing them on animals (and real humans)... Organovo will also be able to sell bioengineered cardiac tissue to heart surgeons (I mean: clinics and hospitals). The surgeons will be able to attach bioengineered tissue to a patient's damaged heart... Then, step after step, one thing leading to another, artificial organs will be ready for transplant...

Yes, this is a revolution... No more organ donation system (the system is in a crisis worldwide), no more organ trafficking (thriving worldwide...), no more "brain death" controversies in scientific papers ("white papers"), no more sorry stories on the Internet, coming from brain-dead patients' next of kin claiming they've been cheated into organ "donation"...

Organovo company "anticipates becoming the leader in surgical tools made from human cells; providing raw material in the form of tissue for surgeons use. According to Organovo CEO Keith Murphy, 'We expect our tissue printing technology to become the underlying foundation for 3D tissue research in the future. By enabling researchers all over the world to compose their functional tissue of interest and conduct research upon it, we can speed medical research across the spectrum and bring new tissue types to patients sooner.'" (Source).