Over the last few years, 3D-printing has
become all the rage. It allows us to recreate all kinds of stuff. But, body
parts?!
Eighteen people
die every day because they cannot get an organ transplant. 3D printing of
replacement organs could considerably reduce this number. Bio-printing of human
tissue has increased fast: Organovo, based in San Francisco, “printed” a human
liver in 2014.
Mike Renard the Executive vice-president of commercial
transactions of Organovo, said in 2013: “In the next 10 years it is possible
that supplemental tissues, ones that aid in regeneration, will progress through
design, clinical and regulatory testing, making it to the clinic as therapies.
Examples may include […] patches to assist a heart condition […]. But more
advanced replacement tissues will most likely be in 20 years or more.”
The liver that Organovo created has been used only in the
laboratory for medical studies and research on medicinal products. The creation
of a viable liver is a huge step for the bio-printing and medical industry; it
needs to prove that human tissue printed in 3D can be kept alive long enough in
a human body.
The Methuselah Foundation, a non-profit organization
based in Springfield, Virginia, promised a reward of $1 million to the first
person able to print a fully functional liver…
Developing human tissue impressions that will last for
a long period of time could change radically the world of Medicine. It will
allow, for example, pharmaceutical companies to test medication on human organs
instead of animals, and research will get more accurate results.
Still, it might take a very long time before 3D
printed organs are used on humans... And, if and when this happens, will we not
face an ethical quandary: could the possibility of indefinitely replacing body parts not make us
immortal?
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