Thank you for helping me 3-D Printing Moves to Human Organs Source: Hotz, Robert
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Thank you for helping me
3-D Printing Moves to Human Organs
Source: Hotz, Robert. "Printing Evolves: An Inkjet for Living Tissue," Wall Street Journal, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443816804578002101200151098.html, posted 9/18/2012.
Need an artery for bypass surgery or custom cartilage for that worn-out knee? Then just hit "print" on your 3-D printer. One of the most exciting innovations in OM, 3-D printers have become indispensable for doing business. The large industrial systems, ranging from $5,000 to $1 million can print in different colors of plastic and employ other materials such as metal, glass, and ceramics. Software makers are harnessing this power, making much better tools for manipulating objects. The market for 3-D printers, about $1.7 billion, will reach $3.7 billion by 2015. One of the most exciting innovations in OM, 3-D printers have become indispensable for doing business. The large industrial systems, ranging from $5,000 to $1 million can print in different colors of plastic and employ other materials such as metal, glass, and ceramics. Software makers are harnessing this power, making much better tools for manipulating objects. The market for 3-D printers, about $1.7 billion, will reach $3.7 billion by 2015.
In laboratories across the U.S., biomedical engineers are working on ways to print living human tissue, with the goal of producing personalized body parts and implants on demand. These tissue-engineering experiments represent the next step in a process known as computerized adaptive
manufacturing ,
in which industrial designers turn out custom prototypes and finished parts using inexpensive 3-D computer printers.
Instead of extruding plastic, metal or ceramics, these medical printers squirt an ink of living cells called shorthand
bioprinting.
The machines can build up tissue structures, layer by layer, into all sorts of 3-D shapes, such as tubes suitable for blood vessels, contoured cartilage for joints, or patches of skin and muscle for living Band-Aids.
At Cornell, researchers are printing heart valves, knee cartilage and bone implants. At Wake Forest, bioengineers are printing kidney cells and are working on a portable unit to print healing tissue directly into burns or wounds. At the University of Missouri, researchers have printed viable blood vessels and sheets of beating heart muscle. Biomedical engineers hope to print out tailored tissues suitable for surgery and entire organs that could be used in transplants, to eliminate long delays for patients awaiting suitable donor organs and the risk their bodies may reject the tissue. Bespoke Innovations is using 3-D printers to produce functioning artificial limbs for a much lower cost than what has been previously available. With digital modeling, a prosthetic limb can be customized to suit the recipient's body and needs.
Leading the way is Organovo Inc., which introduced the first commercial 3-D bioprinters in 2010, and has so far made 10 of its "NovoGen" bioprinters. "It allows us to print a tissue structure that is a functional, living, human tissue," says Organovo's CEO.
Critical Thinking Questions:
1. How do 3-D printers differ from the printer you now use at home?
A.
They are smaller and cost less.
B.
They print by building layer upon layer into 3-D shapes.
C.
They can easily make a copy of your 800 page textbook.
D.
Their sales will soon exceed sales of regular printers.
2. Why are medical researchers so interested in 3-D printing?
A.
They can print heart valves and bone implants.
B.
They can build tissue structures, layer by layer.
C.
They can produce custom-made artificial limbs at reasonable prices.
D.
All of the above.
3. Computerized adaptive manufacturing means
A.
adapting blood vessels into 3-D sheets.
B.
creating cartilage out of metal.
C.
shorthand bio printing of cells.
D.
making prototypes and parts using 3-D printers.
4. 3-D printers
A.
are changing the way Wake Forest researchers treat heart patients.
B.
have the power to revolutionize manufacturing not just in medicine, but in every field.
C.
are limited to medical research at leading universities.
D.
will be in every home by 2016.
Explanation / Answer
1.
B
It is the unique application of 3-D printers that involves building of layer using tissues or other suitable materials. It has helped medical science as well as other industries who rely upon the visualization of 3-D objects and design.
2.
D
All the applications mentioned, can be created using the 3-D printers. It can happen at a lower cost, too.
3.
D
It is the technique to be used to manufacture prototypes and body parts using the living cells for the individuals who demand it.
4.
B
3-D printers are getting popular in every field of business including healthcare and medicines.
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