Scientists are working on a 3D printer that can build entire organs, which can be plugged directly into the body. It will give us something close to eternal life, says one of the developers of the Danish agency printer.
In the future, a 3D printer will be able to print a full, viable heart out, tailor-made to knock the blood around a heart patient's body. (Photo: Stanwhit607)
Future alcoholics could replace their worn-out living with a new one, created by their own stem cells.
Heavy smokers may have built a brand new, clean lung.
And anyone with heart defects get replacement parts or all of their heart with a new fabricated from scratch in a laboratory.
It sounds far fetched, but the method of producing agencies is even more incredible: They are printed with a "3D printer.
"To print the heart is the ultimate goal. When you can print out the heart, I would think that in theory could live forever, "says inventor Jeremie Pierre Gay.
The 28-year-old Frenchman has settled in Aalborg, where he is currently building a 3D printer that is reminiscent of an inkjet printer, with the difference however is that the 3D printer can print up in height and with many different materials.
Together with stem cell researchers from Aalborg University, he hopes in future to be able to print with living cells, which layers can be put together and replace vital body parts, which are already working hard to achieve in the U.S. (see video at bottom of article).
"Of course it is possible. It's going to happen sooner or later. I do not know when but it will definitely happen, "says Associate Professor Vladimir Zachar from the Laboratory for Stem Cell Research at Aalborg University.
'We want to see it in our lifetime'
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565 Danes are waiting right now on a new body, but since only 12 percent of the population are enrolled donor register, there are many who do not undergo the vital organ in time.
This year alone 2008 died 56 Danes on the waiting list because they did not get an organ, and the figure has been rising in recent years.
"I think there will come a new biotechnology company that fits your stem cells. The day you'll need a new heart, they will create a customized heart to you. They look at the mistakes your heart is, repair it in their software and printer a new look. Then go to the hospital with your new, tailor-made heart and undergoing surgery, "says Jeremie Pierre Gay.
He guesses that it will take 20-25 years before you can print out tissue that can be inserted into the body and replace defective parts of bodies.
"Being able to print an entire body will take longer. I'd say 40-50 years, so it's not so distant future. I think we will see it in our lifetime. Life expectancy age will be much longer, "he predicts.
Bodies of printed layers
Inspiration comes from Professor Gabor FORGÁCS, who heads a team of researchers at the University of Missouri-Columbia, USA. Over there they have already started with the first experiments with 3D printers that can print with stem and literally build organs from scratch.
Americans' body print works on the same principle as an ordinary inkjet printer. First, the printer is a thin bed of so-called biopapir consisting of a special gel that cells can live in. Then bioblækken, which consists of living cells, drop by drop embedded in the thin layer of jelly. The cells are placed carefully in a pattern that scientists have instructed the machine to print later.
Once all the drops, each containing about 30,000 cells that are in place side by side in biopapiret, nature takes over. Cell droplets flow together, and the cells organize themselves to form tissues and blood vessels.
Once the first layer are grown together, added a new layer biopapir upstairs, and new droplets of cells printed into the gel. The process is repeated floor on floor as if you built a skyscraper until the tissue forms a three-dimensional structure. Finally dissolved biopapiret, the layers merge and back is the finished body.
They have printed veins and nerves
Gabor FORGÁCS and his research team believes that the method can be used to print any body and as the tissue formed by the patient's own stem cells, the body will in all likelihood, not repel it. But that day is many years away, but Americans have already shown that their 3D printer mastered the ability to build tissue.
To print a piece of a vein: First down biopaper and then printed cell drops down into a ring. The process is repeated layer by layer, and eventually grow the cells together to form the finished vein. (Photo: University of Missouri) "We have printed full biological nervous and blood vessel transplants. We are close to implant pieces of arteries in animals, and we've already done it with our nervetransplantater, "says Gabor FORGÁCS to videnskab.dk.
The U.S. researchers have founded the company Organize Novo, who in two years will do the same tests on humans, but it will take somewhat longer before the company can sell blood vessels and nerves.
"Because of the need to cultivate large quantities of cells and mature they printed designs, so they achieve the necessary biomechanical skills, it will take some time before these transplants can be mass produced for use in humans," says Gabor FORGÁCS.
Aalborg presses will build body printer
At Aalborg University puttering Jeremie Pierre Gay and stem cell researcher Vladimir Zachar with the idea of creating a similar 3D printer that can create human tissue. The method will be simpler than the U.S.. First they will print a support structure and then print the cells inside.
The goal is to print simple body parts such as cartilage, bone, muscle and adipose tissue. So far, however, the project failed because it needs money to hire a PhD student to work with it.
But whether the printer body is developed in the U.S. or Aalborg, Vladimir Zachar sure that 3D printers will be used to build body parts out of cells in the future.
"It is very likely. We have the technology to do it. We do not know yet, but it is very possible. Especially when it comes to simpler tissues, "he says.
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