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3D Bioprinters Could Make Enhanced, Electricity-Generating 'Superorgans'

Posted by timothy on from the finally-some-competition dept.

New submitter meghan elizabeth (3689911) writes Why stop at just mimicking biology when you can biomanufacture technologically improved humans? 3D-printed enhanced "superorgans"—or artificial ones that don't exist in nature—could be engineered to perform specific functions beyond what exists in nature, like treating disease. Already, a bioprinted artificial pancreas that can regulate glucose levels in diabetes patients is being developed. Bioprinting could also be used to create an enhanced organ that can generate electricity to power electronic implants, like pacemakers.

69 comments

  1. Obligatory by ClickOnThis · · Score: 4, Funny

    Internet rule 34. 'Nuff said.

    --
    If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
    1. Re:Obligatory by sjwt · · Score: 4, Funny

      Its not all about sex, the best part is this brings new meaning to the phrase 'My battery just died'

      --
      You have 5 Moderator Points!
      Which Helpless Linux zealot/MS basher do you want to mod down today?
    2. Re:Obligatory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      3D-printed enhanced "superorgans"—or artificial ones that don't exist in nature—could be engineered to perform specific functions beyond what exists in nature, like treating disease. Already, a bioprinted artificial pancreas that can regulate glucose levels in diabetes patients is being developed. Bioprinting could also be used to create an enhanced organ that can generate electricity to power electronic implants, like pacemakers.

      So... diabetes and heart disease then? Wow. We will go to great lengths to avoid telling people that if you eat like a fatass and don't exercise like a fatass you will be a fatass including every problem that goes along with that.

      If re-engineering human organs is easier than putting the fork down and saying no to the pastries then we're doomed as a civilization.

    3. Re:Obligatory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ah, but humans where optimised for conditions where starvation was a real risk and lifespans where shorter due to infectious disease, we are in fact driven to put on excess fat when we can. If you can fix the drivers that make us try to put on weight then you can deal with this, in fact although I did not see it in the context of 3d printing, I did see a suggestion and a design for an artificial extra organ that suppressed apatite in relation to fat levels, which would help overcome this "design" flaw. Why plaster over a problem that you can fix?

    4. Re:Obligatory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The first insulin-dependent diabetic I knew was captain of my school's cricket team, and physically fitter than you'll ever be. I've never been overweight in my life and try to keep myself in shape, yet half of my family developed diabetes later in their lives, regardless of their shape - so I know what I might have to look forward to. Yet my maternal grandmother, despite loving her sweet foods, suffered little health-wise until her late 80s. Life deals you cards, bro, and only an idiot thinks he has much control over the House.

      As to whether re-engineering the brain or another organ is easier - brains are just like legs, biological organs which can be damaged by the wrong stimulus. For the fat people of the America, advertising and choice of sweeteners go a long way to doing this. It requires a religious rather than scientific understanding of the human body to believe that all a person has to do to achieve something is to want to achieve it. And religion is interesting but if you're going to go down that path then you might as well pray the fat away.

    5. Re:Obligatory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your grandmother didn't grow up on Fructose Corn Syrup. IMHO, the biggest cause for Diabetes. I cannot believe how many people I know who are Diabetic.

      Give me Sugar Cane Coke please!!!

  2. Give it 50 years... by gweihir · · Score: 1

    And some of these over-enthusiastic ramblings may even come true. But not much earlier than that.

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    1. Re:Give it 50 years... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      so are you just not keeping up with the way medical technology is developing lately or are you just one of those "humans aren't capable of that" types? because i'd hardly call them over-enthusiastic ramblings, more like predictable short-term advances given the current path of medical science. your attitude sucks horse balls, if nothing else, so please remain under your rock

    2. Re:Give it 50 years... by Trepidity · · Score: 2

      A decades-long lead time is common in medicine. Research on implantable artificial kidneys has already been going on for about 30 years (the first patents date from around 1981-82), with no actual result yet. Here's a survey article from 20 years ago on biohybrid artificial organs. This kind of stuff takes a long time.

      --
      10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
    3. Re:Give it 50 years... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I am keeping up with medical technology, and frankly the amount of academic stuff that actually reaches the man on the street is so minuscule that anyone who has reached middle age can forget about that Revolutionary New Thing Coming Soon, because it won't be. While the quantity of medical research done has never been greater, advances in the practice of medicine have not been slower at any time in the past century. It's not just that we've solved all the elementary problems, but that research is now mostly directed by the businesses which sponsor it - and, contrary to popular belief, it is big, centralised, production-directed systems which tend to be quickest at completing the waterfall from research to implementation.

    4. Re:Give it 50 years... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I am keeping up with medical technology, and frankly the amount of academic stuff that actually reaches the man on the street is so minuscule that anyone who has reached middle age can forget about that Revolutionary New Thing Coming Soon, because it won't be.

      Thats thanks to the excellent medical system we have in great ol' America! If you were a millionaire, you could have any wonderful, life-saving treatment you wanted. If the people wanted every old Joe on the street to get proper healthcare, they'd vote for universal healthcare instead of saying that the emergency room is already a perfect healthcare system for every non-millionaire.

    5. Re:Give it 50 years... by jellomizer · · Score: 1

      You are aware that most Americans have health insurance already including people who are not super rich. Medicare and Medicaid is there too to help out as well.

      The ACA or Obama Care has created a set of cheap insurances you can buy from too.

      I am not stating that there are no big problems. But you are over exadurating the state of healthcare in America.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    6. Re:Give it 50 years... by gweihir · · Score: 1

      It is suckers like you that drives this form of irresponsible reporting. Nothing actually useful will be achieved in the short term here. I am an engineer and a scientist and unlike you, I actually do understand how long these developments take.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    7. Re:Give it 50 years... by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      One, the word is "exaggerating".

      Two, the "over" is redundant. It wouldn't really make sense to under exaggerate, would it?

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    8. Re:Give it 50 years... by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      But ... but ... but this uses 3D printers!

      And rumour has it Elon Musk is involved. It'll be in the shops Monday, I'm sure.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    9. Re:Give it 50 years... by khallow · · Score: 1

      The ACA or Obama Care has created a set of cheap insurances you can buy from too.

      Since we're on the subject, no it doesn't create a set of cheap insurance. It creates a class of subsidized insurance with built-in bailouts for insurers who take on too much risk. Someone still pays for that either through the subsidies or through the bailouts.

    10. Re:Give it 50 years... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Only Americans think "insurance" counts as healthcare.

    11. Re:Give it 50 years... by jellomizer · · Score: 1

      Yes, but America is also one of the few countries that are not crushing themselves from government overspending either.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    12. Re:Give it 50 years... by q4Fry · · Score: 1

      Stop being "obggerate" ;-D

    13. Re:Give it 50 years... by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      The NHS in the UK costs [poundsign]140bn, or 8% of GDP. Private healthcare adds about a quarter of that.

      Meanwhile, the US spends around 17% of GDP and still has people dropping dead from preventable conditions.

      http://www.bloomberg.com/visua...

      But, you know, communism and all that.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  3. Huh..sounds cool... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You go first.

  4. You could generate electricity... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    ...by hooking a little mechanical dynamo to the heart, so that a little bit of the power from each heartbeat would go into triggering the next one.

    1. Re:You could generate electricity... by ClickOnThis · · Score: 1

      That might help to regulate a heartbeat, but it would take energy away from the heart that could be used to pump blood. If the heart is weak in the first place, then I'm not sure you'd want to to tax it further by making it power its own pacemaker. Better to power the pacemaker by some other bio-electrical source, such as the electricity-generating artificial organ described in TFA.

      Then again, if we can just print someone a new "super-heart" then sure, put a dynamo in it and make it power whatever you want. Run your cell-phone, wearable Christmas lights, a human-mobile WiFi access-point, whatever. But how would this compare with other ways to create electricity inside the body, such as the new electricity-generating organ proposed in TFA?

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
    2. Re:You could generate electricity... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That might help to regulate a heartbeat, but it would take energy away from the heart that could be used to pump blood.

      I don't think you understand just how little power a pacemaker requires. How many other electronic devices can you name that could function reliably long after the owner has died?

  5. They need a better market research dept. by dilvish_the_damned · · Score: 1

    If they really knew what they were trying to build it would be a multiply redundant liver with wireless charging pad.

    --
    I think you underestimate just how much I just dont care.
    1. Re:They need a better market research dept. by dbc · · Score: 2

      Soooo.... turn the liver into an alcohol powered fuel cell? So the only way your phone has enough charge to send a text is if you are drunk on your @ss? Do you really want to live in a world like that?

    2. Re:They need a better market research dept. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Why yes, yes i do.

    3. Re:They need a better market research dept. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, and all the crimestoppers TV that comes with it!!!

  6. First Biomachines by John.Banister · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I can see them having success with biological machines that replace more cumbersome mechanical machines. I can even see them producing special purpose machines, like something that processes blood alcohol and takes some of the stress from over consumption off of the liver. But replacing undamaged organs with "superorgans" will take a while as people learn what isn't now known about the complexity of the systems in which organs interact. By the time they get there they might end up with distributed organs made of groups of self replicating nano sized biomachines and we'll have to be scared of a whole new class of viruses.

    1. Re:First Biomachines by JimSadler · · Score: 1

      Organs that generate power as a bonus sounds good. But somehow we would end up with people who get a short and have an internal fire or electrocute themselves. Really I think a lot of these types of operations could do wonderful things but the great barrier might be in most people fearing a surgical cut or scar. It is rather like the legacy of fear in dentistry. People still dread the dentist yet the procedures are not unpleasant these days. We must only live in fear of the bill when we check out.

    2. Re:First Biomachines by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And even the "we're trying to invent an artificial! But we'll 3D print it!!!!!" is like saying "we have a new paper! And we can even make it flat!!!"

      There have been numerous attempts to implant beta cells to produce insulin. These would not be particulary effective for Type 2 diabetics, who are insulin resistant: they have *plenty* of insulin. It could be helpful for the 5% of diabetics with Type 1 diabetes, who normally have no natural insulin because an auto-immune problem killed all the insulin producing cells. And guess what? That auto-immune problem is in place the rest of your life!!!! It kills transplanted cells, too!!!!

      So if you just implant them, or fail to thoroughly encapsulate them, they still get destroyed. Auto-immune drugs tend to interfere with the effectiveness of insulin. There have been numerous attempts to encapsulate the cells, but if you leave the encapsulation permeable, or porous enough, to allow glucose and insulin, and to allow plasma or interstitial fluids in to keep the cells alive, you usually wind up allowing the immune system to attack the cells and ruin them quite quickly. Plus, scar tissue around the implant tends to interfere with glucose detection and insulin flow back out, so the response times are quite poor.

      Vascularizing the implant with clever manufacture could help the response times and maybe help with scar formation. but doesn't address the auto-immune problem. So it's really research to grab funding, unlikely to ever be clinically useful. And if you had a fix for the auto-immune problem, you'd have a cure for most Type 1: Dr. Faustmann's lab at Mass. General Hospital has shown that correcting the auto-immune problem allows the body to create insulin producing cells from adult stem cells. It surprised the hell out of *them* when they figured it out: the lab animals didn't need insulin anymore. They're in their second round of human testing now.

    3. Re:First Biomachines by LifesABeach · · Score: 1

      I was thinking about the body's first line of defense, the Skin.

    4. Re:First Biomachines by penguinoid · · Score: 1

      I can even see them producing special purpose machines, like something that processes blood alcohol and takes some of the stress from over consumption off of the liver.

      Or a specialized organ that detects high blood sugar and converts it to alcohol! Uh, for diabetics, of course.

      --
      Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
    5. Re:First Biomachines by John.Banister · · Score: 1

      A technological innovation that allows a person to actually piss beer. It'll change frat parties forever.

    6. Re:First Biomachines by Gavagai80 · · Score: 1

      Dental procedures are not unpleasant these days? Can I move to your universe?

      --
      This space intentionally left blank
    7. Re:First Biomachines by newcastlejon · · Score: 1

      Unpleasantness is relative. Have you watched Saturday night TV recently? At least when I had my wisdom teeth out there was a sense of relief at the end; the same cannot be said for something like Britain's Got Talent.

      --
      If God forks the Universe every time you roll a die, he'd better have a damned good memory.
  7. I neeeeeeeed it by slashmydots · · Score: 1

    I want a super kidney that's so powerful, it can even filter out duplicate posts on slashdot!

  8. Misread by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    For a moment there I thought that said Electricity Generating Superorgasms.

  9. Mind playing tricks or ... by Greg666NYC · · Score: 1

    Anyone else read today's titles as?

    3D Bioprinters Could Make Enhanced, Electricity-Generated 'Superorgazms'

    Amaya Gaming Buys PornStars and Full Tits Poker For $4.9 Billion

  10. Unfortunately by Eddi3 · · Score: 2
    This sounds great, but unfortunately from TFA:

    "Demonstration of a mini organ model lighting a bulb might be feasible in five years. But developing the technology for transplantation, hooking that up to the blood stream, connecting and synchronizing it with a heart with failed AV node will take much longer." Long enough that we probably wonâ(TM)t be enjoying superhuman organs in our lifetimes. Bioprinted "self-powered humanâ parts that generate electricity are at least 100 years off, Ozbolat said.

    1. Re:Unfortunately by interkin3tic · · Score: 1

      It's always good to be skeptical of anyone saying some new bit of technology is only five years away from being useful... but people saying some bit of technology will take "at least 100 years" should be outright ignored. No one can predict that far in the future when it comes to technology. The NEXT technological breakthrough in a series is nearly impossible to predict a decade in advance. Calling a STRING of breakthroughs like that is dumber than tarot cards. Think about the conservative predictions in the 80s for technology in the year 2000. Flying cars and MAYBE personal radios for everyone. Saying everyone would have pocket supercomputers would have been laughed out of the room.

    2. Re:Unfortunately by Neil+Boekend · · Score: 1

      All cars can fly. It's just that most don't fly very far and the landing is quite rough. Just like back then.

      --
      Well, I might have a way, but it only works on a semi spherical planet in a vacuum.
  11. you blew my cover! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    https://i.imgur.com/0V80ETG.gi...

  12. Better filters by brianerst · · Score: 1

    I'd think one good use for such biological machines would be as super-filters - organs that could scrub the blood of excess cholesterol and other lipids as well as various toxins we haven't evolved to efficiently process.

    I, for one, welcome our new bioprinted organs that keep my arteries clean as a whistle...

  13. And thus... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The Imperium of Man began...

    3 Implants

            3.1 Secondary Heart
            3.2 Ossmodula
            3.3 Biscopea
            3.4 Haemastamen
            3.5 Larraman's Organ
            3.6 Catalepsean Node
            3.7 Preomnor
            3.8 Omophagea
            3.9 Multi-lung
            3.10 Occulobe
            3.11 Lyman's Ear
            3.12 Sus-an Membrane
            3.13 Melanchromic Organ
            3.14 Oolitic Kidney
            3.15 Neuroglottis
            3.16 Mucranoid
            3.17 Betcher's Gland
            3.18 Progenoids
            3.19 Black Carapace

  14. 3D-printing cancer by Blaskowicz · · Score: 1

    What could go possibly wrong. First, you need the organism to not attack and destroy the "organ" so here you need a lifetime of immuno-suppressing treatment, maybe a weak to fake or include the bio-markers (dunno the exact english term) so the new organ can be recognized as legit. And then if that really works out, then how will the organ stay constrained rather than grow anarchically and without limits? Mutations?

    A great concept that seems to be science-fiction. If not impossible then I suppose the difficulty is staggering.

    1. Re:3D-printing cancer by Jesus_666 · · Score: 2

      How do our normal organs keep from gworing anarchically and without limits? They'd presumably try to use the same mechanism for their new organs. As for the immune system, perhaps they could base the organs off the recipient's DNA (such as through stem cells), which would make rejection less likely. It'd be expensive as hell, though. I do agree that we'll take some time getting there.

      Another interesting question would be that of failure modes. What happens if your fancy new electric pancreas gets infected or develops cancer? This could make operations rather interesting and lead to some unusual new medical conditions. Nothing insurmountable, I'm sure, but medicine would become more complex when these things are involved.

      --
      USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
    2. Re:3D-printing cancer by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      What happens if your fancy new electric pancreas gets infected or develops cancer?

      Uh...you become an X-man?

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
  15. ADAM by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Rapture begins.

  16. Come Aboard. We're expecting you. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Love, exciting and new
    Come Aboard. We're expecting you.
    Love, life's sweetest reward.
    Let it flow, it floats back to you.

    Love Boat soon will be making another run
    The Love Boat promises something for everyone
    Set a course for adventure,
    Your mind on a new romance.

    Love won't hurt anymore
    It's an open smile on a friendly shore.
    Yes LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE! It's LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE! (hey-ah!)

    Love Boat soon will be making another run
    The Love Boat promises something for everyone
    Set a course for adventure,
    Your mind on a new romance.

    Love won't hurt anymore
    It's an open smile on a friendly shore.
    It's LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE! It's LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE! It's
    LOOOOOOOOOOOVE!
    It's the Love Boat-ah! It's the Love Boat-ah!

  17. I'm not sure... by Jesus_666 · · Score: 1

    I mean, on the one hand we're facing the infinite power of bio-augmentation but on the other hand we'd be facing a future full of people who have to wear sunglasses because their vision is augmented, not to mention a transitory period where everyone is hooked on anti-rejection drugs except for a few guys who didn't ask for augs anyway. And things go badly we might end up with a near-omnipotent guy in the antarctic presiding over a world full of forgettable characters and crummy gameplay. What a shame that'd be.

    --
    USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
    1. Re:I'm not sure... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wow such imagination! Oh to be eight again!

  18. Heart2 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Finally we can get rid of these atrociously developed Heart1s.
    Seriously, what was the designer thinking by putting in such a silly ruleset for its operation?

    2 billion beats? Terrible. Say hello to Heart2, 10 billion beats guaranteed or your money back!

  19. just what we need by drewsup · · Score: 1

    Cops with genetically enhanced with electric eels cells in their hands for permanent tasing ability.

  20. Being diabetic could become an asset by Tekoneiric · · Score: 2

    I'd like to see an artificial organ developed that would directly convert excess blood sugar into electricity to charge electronics or for built in electric shock organs in the hands. It would turn being diabetic into an asset. You could charge up on sweets.

    It could also be used to burn off the excess sugar as bio-luminescence to be the life of the party.

    --
    *It's not what you can do for the Dark Side but what the Dark Side can do for you!*
    1. Re:Being diabetic could become an asset by grasshoppa · · Score: 1

      It could also be used to burn off the excess sugar as bio-luminescence to be the light of the party.

      Sorry, the joke had to be made.

      --
      Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
  21. Pre-order? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2

    I already know which enhanced, electricity-generating superorgan I want.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
    1. Re:Pre-order? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      http://linux.slashdot.org/comm...

  22. Just use a muscle+dynamometer and a pacemaker by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This can be done right now, and has been developed for heart-assistance
    http://www.ifess.org/cedu_cardiac
    A major leg muscle could be used as a donor for a muscle strip, and would grow over time with use. Could be used as a 24hr exercise tool to burn off weight and increase cardiovascular fitness.

  23. Drug glands!!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I really could have used "calm" the other day and proceed through with what I was working on.

  24. ROFL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Internet rule 34. 'Nuff said.

    http://i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/002/682/34.PNG

  25. H.R Giger by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I wish H.R Giger had lived to see this...

  26. By Neruos by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We have been hearing about cryo and suspended state, dna editing, gene therapy, stem cells, 3D printing, organ meshes, super organs, etc etc for 20+ years. To be honest, it's all just a bunch of non-sense. Prices keep going up, Salaries keep going down, the avg person is what makes up this world and the avg life span isn't getting better, easier or available to them.

    So knock it off with all the "magic potion" type research. Until I see someone completely cured of HIV/AIDS, Cancer (any), Alzheimer's and a new Heart/Liver/Lung creation, all this stuff is a bunch of crap.

  27. Next step: Electricity-Generated hands by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hadouken!

  28. We could make organs to generate electricity? by penguinoid · · Score: 1

    Agent Smith would be so proud.

    --
    Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
  29. I'd like a programmable calculator please! by penguinoid · · Score: 1

    This would probably be a better fix to our arithmetic deficiencies than an implanted chip. Someone should inform DARPA that this would be useful in combat, for example in calculating trajectories and eliminating the need for watches and allowing for more complex and coordinated maneuvers. This way it might get done in my lifetime.

    --
    Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
  30. Just what we need by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Replacing healthy organ "A" with enhanced organ "A" to generate electricity for an electronic device assisting ailing organ "B" -- that no one thought of replacing in the first place.

  31. I know everyone's already mentioned 'Rule 34'... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I just want to know if they can biomanufacture penises for women and/or vaginas for men, and also have them each be fully-functional -- in the pleasure-giving aspects, if nothing else.

    Certainly there are at least some ladies out there who would be interested in this. And heck, in regard to the penises: if they're being biomanufactured anyway, you could even choose between having a 'natural' penis, or one that's circumcised right out of the box. (The latter would probably be cheaper, due to it requiring less material, even if it wouldn't be much less.)

    I certainly know that I would be interested in this.

    (Captcha is 'pronouns'. That seems oddly appropriate.)