Living Tissue Emerges From 3-D Printer

Living Tissue Emerges From 3-D Printer

Harvard bioengineers say they have taken a big step toward using 3-D printers to make living tissue. They’ve made a machine with multiple printer heads that each extrudes a different biological building block to make complex tissue and blood vessels. Their work represents a significant advance toward producing living medical models upon which drugs could be tested for safety and effectiveness. It also advances the ball in the direction of an even bigger goal. Such a machine and the techniques being refined by researchers offer a glimpse of the early steps in a sci-fi healthcare scenario: One day surgeons might feed detailed CT scans of human body parts into a 3-D printer, manipulate them with design software, and produce healthy replacements for diseased or injured tissues or organs.

Txchnologist


The possibilities opening up before us here are staggering.
Working in the medical field all om life I've seen the technology evolve in many areas, but this is the stuff of dreams.
I wonder if it is too late to invest in the technology.

This brings to mind the scifi movies where an injured person is in a tank of fluids and as you see see a robotic arm moving over the damaged which was quickly being replaced with healthy flesh. Scifi is a leader in innovation.

S&F

reply to post by shadow watcher


How many movies have shown this or something similar?

Art imitates life, life imitates art....ad infinitum.

Welcome to the brave new world.

I brought this up in another thread without much response unfortunately that ---> the next step is 3d printing of virus' and bacteria....

cosmicexplorer
I brought this up in another thread without much response unfortunately that ---> the next step is 3d printing of virus' and bacteria....

Oh spiffy!

I bet you the first printed organ will be a bigger phallus.

Even building a virus would have it's use I would imagine.
Engineering antiviri in med school would be a great idea.
Real life simulators to tinker with.

Sentient print outs in the future too I guess.
Watching nano-technology couple with this new science.
The stuff of movies.

cosmicexplorer
I brought this up in another thread without much response unfortunately that ---> the next step is 3d printing of virus' and bacteria....

Hmmm, this could lead to....PRINTER WARS!!!!

This is just the beginning. What about when we are able to make lifeforms only to abuse that life for medical, or industrial purposes?

lostbook
This is just the beginning. What about when we are able to make lifeforms only to abuse that life for medical, or industrial purposes?

There's a movie in there somewhere...

reply to post by shadow watcher


Wonder how long until they can print off whole new body's?

www.youtube.com...

Hell, if I can print off a new liver in 20 years, I'll brew an awful lot more beer.
It seems like this 3-d printing technology will be the new conspiracy theory in ten years with some asking if we think aliens invented it. A michine that can make a gun, or new body parts, or even a pizza of sorts will be the equivelent of a replicator from Star Trek TNG.

shadow watcher

Living Tissue Emerges From 3-D Printer

The possibilities opening up before us here are staggering.
Working in the medical field all om life I've seen the technology evolve in many areas, but this is the stuff of dreams.
I wonder if it is too late to invest in the technology.

Actually it's not too late to invest. It is a great time. A company called Organovo is hoping to create a working human organ sometime in the next decade. They already create tissue samples for testing purposes to major corporations. The really amazing thing about this technology is that with a sample of your DNA, the organ (when it's available) can be printed out specifically for you so that your body will not reject it.

Stock market symbol for Organovo is: ONVO

I bought in at $2.50 a share and sold at $6.00. Wish I would have stayed in longer because it's went up since then.

shadow watcher
Even building a virus would have it's use I would imagine.
Engineering antiviri in med school would be a great idea.
Real life simulators to tinker with.

Sentient print outs in the future too I guess.
Watching nano-technology couple with this new science.
The stuff of movies.

If this ever becomes real, imagine the evil that could be done with it.

Very scary stuff, being able to make a change in a virus, print it out, inject it, see how it reacts, it was defeated by such and such via [insert instruction here.]

Pop back over to cad, change the structure click print, inject, so on and so forth until you reach the desired outcome... It'd be way easier to engineer deadly mutable viruses.

I don't know if I want that reality to be possible.

double post

reply to post by NeoSpace

I bet you the first printed organ will be a bigger phallus.

Not necessary. Just get a Chinese girlfriend.

reply to post by shadow watcher


Hsha ya man thats siiik grow a new arm n shiz snf

reply to post by NeoSpace


theres such a thing as bigger?

i couldn't help myself...
i need a photo copier...not a printer

just kidding im lyin like a rug

i just watched Elysium with Matt Damon and Jody Foster;
the whole movie is based around the haves and have nots fighting over this type of technology
great sceen where someone eats a grenade and they put him in the machine and it rebuilds his head...
just like the ol cartoons

Golden Rule
reply to post by NeoSpace

 

I bet you the first printed organ will be a bigger phallus.

Not necessary. Just get a Chinese girlfriend.

Thats what happend china got this technology first and printed out Chinese girl friends lol

reply to post by andy06shake

with an AI in it, and skin like spidergoat body armour, and a gun