[p2p-research] Printing People Parts: World’s First Human Organ Bio-Printer

[Ryan]

  Sent to you by Ryan via Google Reader: Printing People Parts: World’s
First Human Organ Bio-Printer via Gajitz by delana on 2/19/10
[ Filed under Technology or in the Futuristic category ]


Will we one day be able to print anything and everything we need? 3D
printers have been used in architectural schools for quite some time
already (and self-replicating home models are becoming more and more
common), a 3D food printer is under development, and now several
sources are working on 3D bio-printers: machines that will “print”
organs so patients will no longer have to wait for transplant
donations. Recently, the first commercial organ printer was built by
biomedical company Invetech and delivered to Organovo, a company that
has pioneered the bioprinting technology.


(image via: MUSC)
The printer is already capable of producing arteries, which doctors
will be able to use in bypass surgeries in as little as five years.
Other, more complex body parts should be possible within ten years:
bones and hearts, for example. The printer works by using two print
heads. One lays down a scaffold and the other places human cells into
the shape of whatever organ is being formed. There’s little threat of
the new organ being rejected since it’s made of the patient’s own
cells. The machines could represent a breakthrough in medicine, since
the wait time for new organs would be significantly shortened and the
risk of organ rejection nearly eliminated. Organovo plans to distribute
several of the machines to research facilities to encourage further
development of the printing technology.
Keep Going - Check out this Great Related Gajitz Article: Pod Parts: 3D
Replicators are Here, So is Future Not more than 10 or 15 years ago, it
would have been almost unthinkable to have the kind of photo-printing
technology that we have in homes today, and 100 years ago no one could
have imagined being able to scan and print documents at home. But
printing technology is just bounding ahead, and today we have 3D
replicators in universities and offices - no doubt they'll soon be in
our homes. Machin... Click Here to Read More »»
[ GoGoGajitz! - Filed under Technology or in the Futuristic category ]
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