What is Bio-printing?

What is the Bio-printer

WHO? A Bio-printer enables 3D printers to output synthetic human tissue and even internal organs

HOW? The mechanism is like inkjet printers, which are loaded with cartridges of inks, then sprayed onto paper to produce text and 2D images. Similarly, bio-printers will be loaded with cartilages of living cells. These will be loaded to a bio-print head that will move left and right, back and forth, up and down, in order to place the cells exactly where required!  After many layers of printing, AN ORGAN WILL BE PRINTED!
**Bio-printers will also produce a dissolvable gel to protect the cells during printing

       http://www.explainingthefuture.com/bioprinting.html

What are the potential barriers to adoption?

•  Creation and connection of tissues produced outside the body
•  Connection with the body's blood vessels, blood supply and oxygen                                     
•  Synthetically engineered cells dying before the tissue forms due to a lack of blood vessels
•  Connection these types of vascular networks to natural blood vessels 
•  Supply of blood 

           http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12507034)

           http://www.cbc.ca/news/yourcommunity/2012/07/lab-grown-human-organs-closer-than-ever-                 according-to-scientists.html)

           http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-20002741-52.html?tag=mncol;2n)

What are the Advantages & Disadvantages

     Advantages

•  Accurate with the aid of computers
• May replace donor lists and ease the problem of organ shortages
• Very low risk of organ transplant rejection, as every body part printed will be created from a patient’s own cell

      Disadvantages:

•        Connecting bio-printed organs to living body is extremely difficult

      Source: http://www.explainingthefuture.com/bioprinting.html

What is the prevalence of the Bio-printing?

"If I have to guess, I'd say that in 20 years this technology will be mainstream, absolutely,"
                                         -- Hod Lipson, University Cornell


“…technologies like 3D printing are showing phenomenal new promise…”
                                         --Daniel Kraft, Stanford University

   http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12507034
   http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-20002741-52.html?tag=mncol;2n

Who uses the Bio-printing already?

 NovoGen MMX Bioprinter by Organovo
   
                  The NovoGen MMX Bioprinter™ is a novel hardware and software platform at the forefront of bioprinting research and development. The NovoGen MMX™ was developed to meet challenges in biological research. The platform takes primary or other human cells and shapes them into 3D tissue, with tremendous cellular viability and biology that is superior to even an animal model. The platform is being used by Organovo's Pharma partners today to enable cutting edge research into drug discovery.

By allowing creation of three dimensional biological structures, Organovo creates functional human tissue that is superior to current disease models. By enabling printing of tissue in a laboratory environment, investigations on the constructs can be integrated into your current analysis methods.

http://www.organovo.com/products/novogen-mmx-bioprinter

What are the future uses of the Bio-printing?

                

• Organ transplantation
• Drug testing 
• Create sustainable food for countries with low food reserves
•  Development of robotic methods of functional human tissue and organ bioassembly," Vladimir Mironov of the Medical University of South Carolina wrote in a meeting abstract.
•  Stem cell and regenerative medicine
• Application in dental and bone repairs.
•  Scan wounds and spray on layers of cells to very rapidly heal them.
•  Cosmetic applications: face printers may be created. People could therefore download a face scan from the Internet and have it applied to themselves
•  Printing new muscles without the hassle of exercise
•  Together with developments in nanotechnology and genetic engineering, bioprinting may also prove a powerful tool for those in pursuit of life extension. * Further the New Industrial Convergence, with doctors, engineers and computer scientists all increasingly learning to manipulate living tissue at its most basic cellular level.                                                         

  Source:  

• http://graphics.tech.uh.edu/student_work/specialty_printing/Specialty_Printing/Future_Bioprinting.html
•  http://www.webpronews.com/the-amazing-history-and-future-of-bioprinting-infographic-2012-07
• http://www.explainingthefuture.com/bioprinting.html