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A New Biopaper for Organ Printing

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the 98.6-off-the-presses dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "Organ printing is an emerging branch of medicine which uses healthy cells to repair a damaged or diseased organ. But as its name implies, this new medical technology needs ink, paper and a printer. Now, a new hydrogel -- or biopaper -- developed at the University of Utah has been selected by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to speed up this process. This five-year NSF study will initially try to print blood vessels and cardiovascular networks. But its real goal is to build some complex organs, such as livers or kidneys. This technology can potentially help millions of people waiting for transplants."

8 of 125 comments (clear)

  1. artwork by Janitha · · Score: 4, Interesting

    How long before this will be used for artwork? Designer Tissues. I can't wait for that day.

    I want my tux logo printed this way.

    1. Re:artwork by BWJones · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Well, in a sense, we already are. I know Glen (the creator of the biogel in the linked article), and one of the problems they are going to have is determining the identity of cells within complex tissues that were previously thought to be homogeneous. It turns out that kidneys (and many other appearing homogeneous tissues) are actually incredibly complex. New methodologies in tissue identity and tracking need to be applied here and we have the tools. Check out some of the images generated by these tools here.

      --
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  2. Re:What is the benefit by smashin234 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    They do mention in the article that complex organs such as a liver or a kidney are a long way off. It does sound like science fiction, but if they can at least start with what they claim :

      "I believe in five years we're going to be able to print simple organs, such as a cardiovascular network or a urethra,"

    I think that it is a good step to actually growing organs for people. Just because something is science fiction today doesn't mean it will be in the future.

    Of course, the longetivity and compatibility of the organs is always the largest hurdle when dealing with transplants in general. Just like in transplants, these two issues will be paramount in new endeavors. My question is, how long do these organs really last? That is the largest question on whether this will stay science fiction or if it will become routine procedure in 10 years. If the complex procedure only lasts 5 years, it may be more worthwhile to get an actual transplant.

  3. in 100 years time by Enviro · · Score: 3, Interesting

    humankind will be working on printing an entire human body and assembling it. Forget sequencing the human genome, printing an entire human and getting it to function would be the greatest achievment of mankind..... Well you never know!

  4. Artificial lungs by G4from128k · · Score: 2, Interesting

    With printed blood vessels on thin sheet and a bit of folding, they could get a nice surface area to volume ratio for an artificial lung. I could also see making gills, but I doubt that a man-size warm-blooded organism can get enough O2 in water.

    --
    Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
  5. Secret tracking codes by Patola · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Will they embed secret codes for personal tracking and identification in these printers too?

    --
    Patola (Claudio Sampaio)
    Unix System Administrator
  6. MEAT by timeOday · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I would be very happy if they just came up with a way to make cheap, high quality filet mignon without raising a whole cow. Cows really take up a lot of space, a lot of feed, and produce a lot of gasses (no, seriously). Plus there's the whole slaughterhouse scene. Good cultured meat would save us money and open up meat-eating (OK, and heart disease) to a lot of poor people around the world. The quality could be even better than natural, with super-fine fat marbling and no big bloody veins. Plus it should be relatively easy to do, since synthetic meat doesn't even have to be a functioning organ... it just has to be close enough to fool my tastebuds. And while we're dreaming, bring on the affordable hormone-free milk...

  7. Wrong by gregm · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The republicans haven't outlawed stem cell research, they've simply said that the gov isn't going to fund embryonic stem cell research. I personally don't think the gov has any busines funding businessess who patent the results and then rape us for their drugs and wish they'd stop handing over money to drug companies or to universities so the drug companies and universities can get more rich.

    However keep sending those thankyou cards for all the other bullshit they've been pulling.

    G