3D printing organs and bones: myth or the new reality? Kevin Shakeshaff, who is a professor of pharmacy at the University of Nottingham in England thinks it’s the future. He has been working on a technology that is set to print out custom body parts. “The tissues of our body are structured at the level of single cells – using 3D printing, we can position cells in precise places.”
Image: The University of Nottingham.
Recently we’ve been writing about a technique that makes it possible for surgeons to print out replicas of bones and organs, but the new technique from Shakeshaff very much looks like the next level of 3D printing in the medical field. He uses a 3D bio-printer to create a scaffold in the bone shape that he coats with adult human cells, which can develop into many different tissue types. When he has printed out a bone it can be implanted into the body.
The professor says the advantage of this technique is it gives us the possibility to print out an organ in the exact shape of the defect one. He says in the future this might be a perfect technique to help people with a heart that isn’t functioning properly. A similar technique has recently been used successfully to help Japanese patients with a bone transplant. If you want to know more about this subject you can check it out here of watch the video: