Organ Printing

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Organ Printing Vi Tran BME 181 April 1, 2013
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The Need For Organs Today
-117,521 people in United States in need of organ
according to organdonor.gov -Each day 79 receive
organ each day while 18 will die from a lack of
one -Kidneys, hearts, livers, lungs are most
needed organs
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What is Organ Printing?
-Integrating biology and 3-D printing
technology -A process where an artificial organ
can be created using a 3-D printer/bioprinter -Cur
rently NO real organ has been successful created,
but scientists are currently working on this idea
and are making progress
-First commercial bioprinter company is
Organovo -Printed blood vessels and cardiac
tissue from chicken cells in 2008
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How Does It Work?
-Uses bioink, mixture of stem cells -Printer
moves back and forth dropping out one bioink
particle at a time to form one layer
-Printer prints out one layer of cells at a time
on biopaper, which is made up of collagen, water,
and hydrogels -Layers are printed one top of each
other -After cells fuse, biopaper is removed
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Current Developments Doctor Anthony Atala
-Director at Wake Forest Institute of
Regenerative Medicine and a surgeon -Part of the
team that created first functional artificial
bladder to be implanted in a human -In 2011,
successfully printed a kidney from human cells in
seven hours -Not functional in humans yet but his
research is still in progress
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Current Developments University of Pennsylvania
-Team Dr. Jordan Miller, Dr. Christopher Chen,
and Dr. Sangeeta Bhatia -Created a sugar template
that can helps shape development of a vascular
network for artificial organs -After network is
printed, cells are inserted and network then
grows -Sugar template is dissolved after
completion of development
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Why Doesnt it Work?
-Difficult to create blood vessels between tissue
layers -Organs have many specialized functions
difficult to replicate
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Benefits and Disadvantages
-Printers cost hundreds of thousands of
dollars -Possibly more expensive than regular
organ transplant -Use of stem cells is still
controversial -Cost of using stem cells -Not
successfully created yet
-Artificial organ personalized using patients own
cells -No DNA rejection -Eliminate need for
immunosuppressant drugs needed after a regular
organ transplant -Eliminate organ donation -No
waiting period
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The Future
-Advancements in tissue engineering and 3-D
printing technology will help in development of
artificial organs from organ printing -If
achieved, more lives could saved and prolonged
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Questions?Works Cited
"3-D Printing Getting Organ-ized." Urban times,
2013. Web. 30 Mar. 2013. lthttp//urbantimes.co/201
1/12/3d-printing-getting-organ-ized/gt. "Bioprintin
g." N.p., 1 Mar. 2013. Web. 30 Mar. 2013.
lthttp//www.explainingthefuture.com/bioprinting.ht
mlgt. Hill, David. "GROWING HUMAN ORGANS DR.
ANTHONY ATALA BLOWS THE MINDS OF A TED AUDIENCE."
N.p., 2012. Web. 30 Mar. 2013. lthttp//singularity
hub.com/2011/03/15/growing-human-organs-E28094-
dr-anthony-atala-blows-the-minds-of-a-ted-audience
/gt. Lerner, Evan. "Penn Researchers Improve
Living Tissues With 3D Printed Vascular Networks
Made From Sugar." University of Pennsylvania, 1
July 2012. Web. 30 Mar. 2013. lthttp//www.upenn.ed
u/pennnews/news/penn-researchers-improve-living-ti
ssues-3d-printed-vascular-networks-made-sugargt. "M
edia Coverage." Organovo, 2013. Web. 30 Mar.
2013. lthttp//investors.organovo.com/Newsroom/Medi
a-Coverage/default.aspxgt. "Organ Printing
Computer-aided Jet-based 3D Tissue Engineering."
N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Mar. 2013. lthttp//www.ncbi.nlm
.nih.gov/pubmed/12679063gt. U.S. Government
Information on Organ and Tissue Donation and
Transplantation, n.d. Web. 30 Mar. 2013.
lthttp//www.organdonor.gov/index.htmlgt.