The extensive capability of 3D printing has already proven to help the DIYers of the world print out their own plastic designs, aid an architect's plan to print out an entire building layer by layer, and even provided a DIY prosthetic hand for a boy in South Africa. Now, 3D printing is branching into controversial areas and giving stem cells a shot.
Researches over at the Herlot-Watt University in Edinburg have successfully 3D-printed embryonic stem cells for the first time ever. This new bio-printing technology has the ability to eliminate the need for organ transplants. The artificially-printed tissue could also eradicate animal testing and the need to extract embryonic stem cells by providing labs with a ready supply of the material.
This stem-cell printer is the world’s first living tissue deposit/building machine. (Source: Colin Hattersley/Heriot-Watt University)
Embryonic stem cells are originally derived from the blastocyst a few days after fertilization and are pluripotent -- meaning they can replicate almost any tissue in the human body. The process used to artificially create these cells is different from previous attempts that produced tough, 2D stem cells. Dr. Wenmiao Shu modified the valve from a printer nozzle so that blobs of these cells were produced rather than the usual thin layer. Thus, more accurate human tissue cultures can be used to aid with toxicity testing and in-vitro drug development.
Organovo, a 3D human tissue manufacturer in San Diego, Calif., has already partnered with Autodesk to develop the first software for 3D bioprinting to be used in conjunction with the NovoGen MMX printer.
Both entities hope that one day this new technology will create a viable source for 3D-printed organs. This would be a miraculous breakthrough that can potentially eliminate the waiting time for hundreds of thousands of individuals in need of an organ transplant.
Though stem cell research may be a controversial topic, the intention to aid the lives of others continues to make tremendous technological strides. The nascent 3D printing is right in the middle of it. One day, we may even be able to bio-engineer ourselves from our home offices.
Sometimes tech like this never gets out of the development stage. To jump the gun and raise flags, whatever cliché, over the content usually doesn't matter. People exploit others for organs daily. Sometime against their will. I am sure that is happening with stem-cells too. Perhaps there are "evil scientists" out there willing to take the cells, we just don't know. Though, state sponsorship of organ/cell harvesting will never happen here in the USA, so feel safe.
However, somehow this research needs to take place for humanities ultimate benefit... how to go about it will be tricky.
I certainly agree with the comments Elizabeth made. Cabe is merely reporting on a very fascinating advancement in 3-D printing. I really don't think it's our place here to moralize. I personally feel if technology can allieviate any human suffering for the living it's appropriate to investigate. I have one friend who suffers from chronic back pain due to a car wreck had several years ago. After four major surgeries, stem cell research is his only real option for lessening of the pain. This could be a great application for existing and improving technology.
Your point is well taken, gaga1017, but as journalists, it's not our place to judge morally whether something is good or bad. Of course engineers all have to make the decisions for themselves whether they want to take part in some type of research or not based on moral or even religious beliefs. But what Cabe did in this article was to report on something innovative that is happening in the field of 3D printing and medicine. Our readers here at Design News are largely engineers, so this was meant to be informative to them, not make any judgment on the activity itself. That is up to the people involved, I would think.
It's good you were able to access the paper and took the time to summarize. It is all true. They are not printing anything but globs, so to speak. But, it is the first step in the right direction.
With the recent 3D printed bone and organs being successful, all work in this area is necessary.
To clarify--I read the abstract, downloaded the paper, and looked through the results. What they are doing is: (1) starting with viable embryonic stem cells, (2) putting them into a culture medium, (3) "printing" meaning using a printer like setup to form droplets droplets of cells+medium along with just medium to form (4) a droplet or blob which contains as few as 5 cells and is as small as 0.25 mm, (5) printing a grid (array) of these of various sizes and cell concentrations, then (6) inverting the droplet holder so that gravity acts on the cells and causes them to coalesce into spheriod shapes.
That's it. The "breakthrough" is controlling the size of the resulting droplets and cell amounts which would be useful in research work, and increasing the percent of cells which survive the process. No 3D. No organs coming out the end of a printer.
Do we simply remove ourselves from the moral issue by casually saying, "though it's a controversial topic"? We have a responsibility as engineers to consider all aspects of our work. Yes, there are areas that though possible, interesting, intellectually challenging, and even "beneficial" for medical advancement, we must consider the cost. Destroying one human life to enhance another is not acceptable, even though it is technically possible and a really "neat" advancement!
As a liver transplantee, I'm very much interested in these stories. When my new liver wears out in about 20 years, I'd love to get a replacement from my own cells and be able to get off the immunosuppressants I have to take twice daily which make me susceptible to skin cancer. It's been two years and I've already had to have two spots treated with liquid nitrogen to freeze them off.
Chris Anderson, the editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine, recently declared that 3D printing would one day be bigger than the Internet. Advances like this one are why.
So very often when we talk about advances in technology what we really have is an advancement in material. It's not so much that we have a new gadget or procedure, it's that we finally have a new material which allows us to use existing technology (a 3D printer) in new ways.
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