Latest Invention: 3D Bio-printer that Can Fabricate Human Tissue and Organs

Latest Invention: 3D Bio-printer that Can Fabricate Human Tissue and Organs

www.infoniac.com

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Australian engineers from Invetech, a company with headquarters in Melbourne, and Organovo, a firm based in San Diego, California, developed a 3D bio-printer that can prove to be very useful in creating organs for those who need them.

At this time, one of their most useful inventions can grow blood vessels. It is expected that in 5 years the arteries printed by the device could be used by surgeons when they perform open heart surgeries. The companies believe that more sophisticated organs could be developed by 2020.

To be able to print

(visit the link for the full news article)


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Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
DARPA Wants to Override Evolution to Make Immortal Synthetic Organisms

Does this mean in the forseeable future we could literally print off a whole human? We have arteries and bones already; they plan to extend their research to other organ obviosly. Theoretically (certainly not practically) they could print off most of a human right on the bench. Why worrry about clones anymore when you can just puch enter on your printer. Of course it has many excellent medical uses and a lot of this is already doable.

www.infoniac.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Wow, where I see this could be going in a very advanced notion boggles the mind, from printing out a new heart for surgery, to more commercial and even silly applications (print out a tail for kicks, print out "enhanced" parts for a quick surgery, print out a shell of a human for...very advanced blow up dolls, etc)...but that would be what...50-100 years down the road.

anyhow, very interesting prospects, lets see where it leads to...and if any spinoff apps come from it (aka, print out a burger and solve the whole food crisis/animal treatment issue)

This is cool! Finally some real advances towards sci-fi cloning and regeneration. The ability to "print" bones is unbelievable in itself, but printing arteries and organs? Wow. All that needs to happen now is for the printer to become cheap and widely available.

Imagine, when your body part printer breaks, you'd call an office repairman.

nice ..

I bet the ink costs a lot

Well at least now I'll know better than to print my email.. Might get a virus

This is actually quite intriguing. I think the biggest thing is printing a body for a brain..

I can see the slogan now.

Be young again, get yourself a brand new body for the low low cost of $99999999999999999999999999999999999.99

This is actually old news, I posted a thread in 2007
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Check it out, they show how the transplant works, how the printer works, how easy it is to make and complications as well.

Also it shows how your toilet in the future is connected to the internet and it analyzes your urine to judge insurance fees you have to pay.

As well as many other things related to printing hearts, organs and flying paramedics as well.

It's great, future is scary though

WOW! anyone else think of that bruce willis film, 5 element.

they recreate the perfect woman, by someting like this

Rather amazing, all in it self.

Does give hope for those of us with failed systems. or parts..

Too bad we have a limited understanding of the nervous system and such.
The optical nerve is another one we are not able to reconnect..

WSill be a while yet before the blind will see, and the type 1 diabetics, like me, will get a replacement pancrase and live normal lives.

But there is always hope.

Originally posted by DaMod
This is actually quite intriguing. I think the biggest thing is printing a body for a brain..

What and be an Alzheimer, doddery old git in a youthful body?, not getting at you personally just find the old lets put the brain in a new body thing ridiculous since people seem to forget the brain tissue is just as old as the original body.

The other thing I question is, if they eventually can print bone (since the article mentions only organs and nothing about bone), how on earth are they going to get the stress support lines done right, bone isnt some solid substance like chalk, its got a grain, and very special direction to it, and often that grain is developed by the way the individual walks and puts stress on it from birth and onward... can see the first guy to have a printed femur getting up and walking and suddenly having his leg buckle in two since he twisted the new bone the wrong way.

Id rather have a stem cell grown organ myself, at least i know it would have been formed naturally though division based on the DNA rather than assembled cell by cell.

[edit on 10-2-2010 by BigfootNZ]

reply to post by ModernAcademia

This is actually old news, I posted a thread in 2007

Quite old. While it's still being developed, it's been in development for a number of years now. It's not really cutting edge either in commercial application, or in trial demonstration/proof of concept.

Originally posted by liquidselfDoes this mean in the forseeable future we could literally print off a whole human?

No. Even if it were feasible with that machine, it'd be extremely inefficient. Further, I don't think it has the necessary resolution to construct the finer tissue structures or replicate intricate arrangements such as mapping the neural connections of the brain. It's not a "Clone Printer", it's an organ printer.

Anthony Atala has a decent TEDTalk on tissue engineering and methods of growing replacement organs. Towards the end of the talk, he mentions the printer the OP referred to. The "printer" will likely end up being an on-demand organ placeholder capable of producing a new organ that patients can use immediately as a stop-gap, but which will be replaced by the regeneration/engineering of the patients own organ. It should hopefully eliminate the tragedy of patients on organ donation waiting lists dying before they can be matched with a donor organ.

reply to post by BigfootNZ


Just a note that I kinda snuck in a link to another printer that is projected for bone printing.

www.infoniac.com...

As for the new brain/old body if it were possible people would do it I am sure. Doesn t mean its a good idea. Of course if it were possible then they would probably also graft feotal brain tissue into their brains 1 piece at a time if they could (of course just guessing with that last one lol)

Maybe they will eventually be able to "print" out an entire physical body. But who knows what kind of soul it will have. They'll just be creating a bunch of golems until they can figure out how replicate the mind/soul/conscience of a person.

Dr. Frankenstein, I presume? Best just to use it for replacement organs, I think.

reply to post by TheComte

Dr. Frankenstein, I presume?

I don't see any evidence necessitating the existence of a soul. What most people tend to define as their soul, has actually been mapped and studied as component segments of the brain operating in tandem. We're actually about 10 years out from a fully functional human brain emulation if the guys at the Blue Brain Project are accurate in their estimates. Emulation does not mean we fully understand the brain, but that we understand it's simplistic operation on the lowest levels of interaction and can let it self-organize just as it does in a biological body. Then we'll be much better able to model and understand the higher-level interactions from which consciousness emerges.

However, I have to wonder if consciousness does emerge from an emulated human brain... would it not be, for all intents and purposes, human? Wouldn't that raise the same ethical concerns this model was designed to work around? Considering the astounding success of the project so far in emulating a functional neo-cortical column as proof of concept, I strongly suspect that such a mind will be conscious. However, I wonder if any consideration has been given to sensory and social input - to growing and educating this virtual brain to form the necessary neural pathways for consciousness to be recognizable to us. If "grow" in isolation, or if spontaneously generated, such a brain would resemble more our pre-cromagnon ancestors, or feral/neglected children.

Anyhow, I wouldn't worry about "soulless" golems. Though the ethical concerns such applications raise are quite serious.

Remember the story of Frankenstein. The monster was the human reaching out for family, for love, for acceptance and a human connection. It was driven to madness and revenge. Frankenstein, the creator, and those who persecuted the monster were who truly represented the inhuman abominations of the story. If you're apt to invoke Frankenstein, then such should be worth remembering.

reply to post by Lasheic


I have wondered about AI and emergent awareness as well. I had thought that the Turing test had made the question of actual consciousness obsolete as I understand it. I personally doubt any strictly mechanical object will ever be truly conscious/ self - aware - there is a distinction between intelligence and awareness. (I know plenty of people who are aware but dumb as a post lol). For a good analysis of AI I recommend the following thought experiment:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

(Like your analysis of Frankenstien btw.)