Inkjet Printer Prints out Human Skin

Anonymous Award writes "Scientists at the University of Manchester in the UK have developed a type of inkjet printer that can print human cells. The scientists claim that it will be possible to print 'made-to-measure' tissue and bones to be grown simply by inputting their dimensions into a computer. But that's not all, the printer's creator claims that the potential of his team's discovery is enormous: 'You could print the scaffolding to create an organ in a day,' well, one day maybe. Where could this technology lead in a 100 years I wonder? Could it lead to a fax machine for complete living organisms?"

Comments

Great Marketing

[fembots]

If you can't afford this skin surgery, you can always get sponsorship from companies like Intel and let the printer print a non-removable "Intel Outside" on your new skin.

This guy is going to get so excited.

So

[cbrocious]

So you're saying that I can print a new liver? Sweet! *breaks out a 6-pack*

Great, almost there

[Trogre]

Now all we need to do is figure out how to bombard a body with slightly greasy solar atoms.

give away printers... sell arms and legs

[myowntrueself]

"Where could this technology lead in a 100 years I wonder?"

I don't know... lets see now... How about printer vendors selling toner cartridges for arms and legs for an arm and a leg?

Re:give away printers... sell arms and legs

[new500]

"Where could this technology lead in a 100
years I wonder?"

-delete where redundant-

a) HP charges a commission every time you walk across a border.

b) N Portman 3D Models trade on the black market for fortunes.

c) First DMCA suit from woman who used skin printer for enhancements : "You voilated my personal copyright, you macho letcherous *&^*^&"

- woman looses at trial, Pam Anderson proven to have prior art.

d) Penis enlargement SPAM pioneers go legit and IPO.

e) Tattoos actually get popular and mainstream

f) oh, heck, over to you.

Molding or creation ?

[cyberfunk2]

"Team leader Professor Brian Derby says that they are the only team in the world to work out how to print human cells without destroying them in the process."

So, does this mean they're taking skin cells that are already created en masse from cell culturing and reshaping them? I mean, I assume they're not just "printing" new actual cells, right ? The article seems a little vague on this point.

Re:Molding or creation ?

[Tsu Dho Nimh]

Culturing them is the easy part. It means they figured out how to squirt live cells through the tiny aperture onto the substrate without rupturing them and killing them.

Carts..

[Sc00ter]

Will the carts be region coded?

obviously

[Hyksos]

Obviously the local gag at the lab is printing out a huge penis on your coworker's printer. Literally.

Refills

[Captoo]

I'm sure that owners of these printers will have to pay a heck of a lot for small refill cartridges. Probably almost as much as they pay for ink for their regular printers. :-)

Buttocks

[BabyDave]

This gives photocopying your bum a disturbing new dimension ...

Beam Me Up, Mr. Scot

[ackthpt]

Where could this technology lead in a 100 years I wonder? Could it lead to a fax machine for complete living organisms?"

This was one of the theories exlained to me, years ago in a physics class on how matter transportation may be accomplished...reconstructing by layers.

The downside was you had to be destroyed to find out what you were made of in order to reassemble you.

Re:Skin

[sconeu]

I think so, Brain, but where are we going to get 40 cheerleaders and a vat of Cheez-Whiz?
NARF!
</PINKY>

Re:Obligatory porn comment

[aslate]

Or the spam industry!

"Print your new, longer pen1s today! No need for vi4gra! Download the new 12 inch model today!"

However i fear the nozzle will get clogged half-way through.

Please let it be so.

[TiggertheMad]

I sure hope so. I'd hate to have an emergency skin graft and get some elbow skin on my forehead...

Re:Please let it be so.

[Suchetha]

well if you got foreskin applied to your eyelids, you could see the world all cockeyed..

suchetha

fingerprint security

[mrcubehead]

Will fingerprint security will need to be revised?

Re:Obligatory porn comment

[mjt AG]

That's funny you immediately thought about getting a new pen1s. I for one thought about printing out different types of girls.

Loser

[siskbc]

So you're saying that I can print a new liver? Sweet! *breaks out a 6-pack*

You'll never get cirrhosis with a half-assed effort like that. Grab a case at least.

If they can make this work

[multiplexo]

it will be a huge advance. Right now if you get 3rd degree burns over 40 percent of your body you're basically dead as their isn't enough skin on the rest of your body to graft to the parts of your body that are burned. So since your skin is your primary barrier against infection you generally get an infection and die.

Another problem with skin grafts is that they motherfucking hurt! Jesus H. God do they motherfucking hurt! I spent eight weeks in a hospital in 2003 and ended up with about 200 square inches of donor site and goddamnit it hurt! I ended up having my left leg amputated below the knee because it had been crushed and my tibia and fibula were broken in three places and even after that I'd have to say that the skin grafts were the most painful thing that happened to me. Any surgical procedure where the doctor describes it as "We take this device called a dermatome, which looks like a rotary cheese grater, and run it back and forth over the donor site to harvest a thin layer of skin" is not going to be any fun to go through and afterwards the donor sites are red and raw like a serious case of road rash.

If they could print up enough skin, quickly enough it would be a huge, huge, huge advance. I wish them the best of luck.

Inkjet Printer Prints out Human Skin

[Glonoinha]

I bet the cartridges cost an arm and a leg.

Nice jokes

[tmortn]

But there is some serious change in the wind from this kind of tech.

Just printing tissue could be huge. Not just for medicine. But how about you start printing Big macs. No more raising a cow. Just harvest some cells and start a culture farm that in turn prints out big mac patties based on muscle tissue of the approprite parts.

Print any kind of meat. Or other food matter. No mass salughter of animals any more or having to raise them on a massive scale.

Not against animals beint eaten.. Trust me I come from the

"I love animals. try to eat at least one a day"

School of thought. But this would be a boon for a country like Japan where they don't have room to raise large herds of livestock and have to import.

This would also alleviate alot the fears of things like Mad Cow disease. You could also print any kind of cellular matter. Print a healthy microwave dinner in animal shapes for kids in their favorit colors.

Food supplies no longer linked to harvest and weather but linked to energy and the ability to induce cell growth.

That is just one possibility in addition to the cloning and organ possibilities. There was a bit in Pop Sci this month where someone has rigged a supply of cement as an 'ink' to a massive 'ink jet' head on a three D motion scaffolding to print buildings. Imagine a house complete with plumbing and electricity printed in a day or two.

Star Trek hypo sprays. Ink Jet Technology. Already asthma style inhalers with injet dispersal are being eyed as a medicine delivery method over shots and even the possibility of direct atomization in to the blood stream ala hypo spray.

Plastic fast prototyping technology. Print a cell phone cover, Comb, Toothbrush, ziplock bags and any number of other household common items. Slightly more complex would actually be able to print circut boards and buttons. Remote Controls, calculators. Even if the tech never made it to the home it can easily revolutionize manufacturing to an extent not seen since the industrial revolution. "Grandpa did people really used to sit on a assembly line all day long putting widgets together ???" The question there is only speed and economy of scale.

and not only that but the ability to alter the design on the fly without any major retooling. Man it is exciting. Course there is the issue of what the masses of factory workers would do if their jobs were largely eliminated.