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How 3-D Printing Body Parts Will Revolutionize Medicine

A device the size of an espresso machine quietly whirs to life. The contraption isn't filled with fresh, pungent grounds but, instead, spoonfuls of opaque, sterile goo. Its robotic arm moves briskly: It hovers, lowers, and then repositions a pair of syringes over six petri dishes. In short, rapid-fire bursts, they extrude the milky paste. Soon, three little hexagons form in each dish. After a few minutes, the hexagons grow to honeycomb structures the size of fingernails. No one here is getting a latte anytime soon.

The honeycombs are human livers, says Sharon Presnell, chief technology officer of Organovo—or at least the foundations of them. The tiny masterpieces of biomedical engineering…

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Featured

 Medical 3-D Printing Will ‘Enable a New Kind of Future’

Advances in 3-D printing and medical technology will soon make it possible to construct human tissue in a lab, implant it in a patient and watch it grow into the body. Tissue engineering, as it’s called, was just one of the exciting new technological advances researchers and doctors have made in the medical 3-D printing field, a potentially revolutionary industry.

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3D bioprinting of tissues and organs

Recent advances have enabled 3D printing of biocompatible materials, cells and supporting components into complex 3D functional living tissues. 3D bioprinting is being applied to regenerative medicine to address the need for tissues and organs suitable for transplantation.

No Donor Required: 5 Body Parts You Can Make With 3-D Printers

Recently, researchers have found some amazing healthcare and biological applications for 3-D printing technology, called bioprinting.

Resources

Inside 3D Printing

Inside 3D Printing is the largest professional 3D printing and additive manufacturing event series worldwide. As a conference attendee, you’ll explore the business applications of 3D printing through conference sessions led by industry experts, demonstrations of the latest 3D printers and services, and programming for designers, professionals, and makers. Join us on our world tour and see how 3D printing is revolutionizing industries including manufacturing, medicine, architecture, aerospace, and more.

3DPrinting.com

3D bio printing of human tissue has been around since the early two-thousands. Nowadays scientists are in the midst of moving from printing tiny sheets of tissue to entire 3D organs. 3Dprinting.com will keep you informed of the latest developments in the bio printing industry.

ExplainingTheFuture.com

As bioprinters enter medical application, so replacement organs will be output to individual patient specification. As every item printed will be created from a culture of a patient's own cells, the risk of transplant organ rejection should be very low indeed. Together with developments in nanotechnology and genetic engineering, bioprinting may also prove a powerful tool for those in pursuit of life extension.

Organovo

At Organovo, we design and create functional human tissues using our proprietary three-dimensional bioprinting technology. Our goal is to build living human tissues that are proven to function like native tissues. With reproducible 3D tissues that accurately represent human biology, we are enabling ground-breaking therapies...