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Scientists "Print" Human Vein With 3D Printer

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the because-we-can dept.

An anonymous reader writes "3D Printing technology has recently leapt into a new realm — we've seen printers that can create entire buildings out of stone, delicious meals out of simple ingredients, and now — perhaps weirdest and coolest of them all — a printer that can build body parts from cells!"

3 of 94 comments (clear)

  1. Those other things are really interesting... by clone53421 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Since TFS didn’t:

    we've seen printers that can create entire buildings out of stone, delicious meals out of simple ingredients

    References: 3-D Printer Creates Entire Buildings From Solid Rock, MIT’s Digital Food Printer Creates Nutritious Meals

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    Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
  2. At UWMC we've been making parts for years by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 3, Informative

    Actually, we have been doing scaffolding work on various body parts for years, including livers and other organs.

    The hard one is the heart - the cardiovascular veins are easier to replace one by one though.

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    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
    1. Re:At UWMC we've been making parts for years by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      I'd heard the scaffolding was going pretty well; taking pig organs, stripping away the cells with some kind of solvent, leaving the collagen-based scaffolding, then 'doping' the scaffold with the patient's cells to produce a perfect 'match' organ - with the success the doctors had with the South American woman a while ago (and more recently with a 10 yr old boy - http://www.bionews.org.uk/page_56929.asp) I'd hoped this kind of rejection-free organ replacement was *very* close to being more generally available.