Do You Wanna Build a Human?

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3D Printing Technology

3D printing has become very well-known in recent years. The process has been around since the late 1980s and was developed at MIT. Now people are printing candy, chocolates and sugar candies, and designing items to print themselves. Websites are full of designs people can download and print for free if they have the technology. However, the realm of 3D printing isn’t constrained to the material world. Living cells are being printed into different shapes to help people.

When any item is created using a 3D printer a 3D model is required. This model can be obtained using scans of other objects or made using 3D computer software.

The hope of those experimenting with biological printing, or bioprinting, is that one day we will be able to print entire organs. With the amount of transplants needed, the wait lists, and the people who die waiting for an organ, being able to print a new organ for a patient would save lives.

The process of bioprinting.
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Do You Wanna Build a Human?

Let's make a human!
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Ears, noses, and skin made of living cells are successfully being produced. Bioprinting works similarly to regular 3D printing. According to Dr. Anthony Atala, where there is ink or plastic, there is gel full of cells. Ink jets secrete layer upon layer of cells long with supportive gel to create a 3D framework. The construction allows for the cells to take in oxygen while they grow to full the framework.

Tissues are being constructed this way with the patients’ own cells for use in skin transplants. Soon scientists hope to create bones and fully functioning organs.

One reason this technology is so incredible is that it eliminates the possibility of organ rejection. If an organ is created with a patient’s cells, then his or her body will readily accept a transplant.

 A 3D printer filling in a burn wound with skin cells.
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Technology is being developed to print skin directly onto the wounds of soldiers, according to 3dprintingindustry.com. Wounds received in combat could be more quickly treated this way.

It’ll Only Cost an Arm and Leg

Medical bioprinters are expensive. However, if organs can be made quickly and in mass quantities, the printers will pay for themselves. Bioprinting requires cells from a patient to be used to create new tissue.

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3D printers are now readily available for home use. You can actually buy a small 3D printer for less than two thousand dollars.

It Doesn’t have to be a Human

Right now only tissues have been printed. However, printing fully functioning organs is in the near future. With the way technology is advancing we may eventually be able to print organ systems and even organisms. Creating creatures in the lab is not as far-fetched as one might think. In Tokyo scientists have sustained goat fetuses in artificial wombs for three weeks, according to the New York Times. Supplementing developing children outside the womb is becoming more sophisticated. Children born as early as 22 weeks are able to survive outside their mothers thanks to improving technology.

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A time where children no longer need to develop inside their mother’s womb is approaching quickly.

The creation of life entirely from lab work is very controversial. It brings up the question of whether or not life has or requires a soul or spirit. I'm sure philosophers and theologians will debate this. I can’t really say what would be possible.

Coming Soon to a Printer Near You

In 2014, Russian Scientists announced that they would transplant a 3D printed organ into a mouse in March of 2015, according to 3ders.org: 3D Printer and 3D Printing News. The organ to be transplanted is a thyroid gland. This operation has not yet happened but hopefully we’ll hear about it soon. Russian scientists also plan to transplant the first 3D printed kidney in 2018.

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