Get a printout of your heart, a real one, with bioprinting
Imagine creating healthy working cells with the use of ink, paper and a printer. Yes, it's a reality. Meet Gabor Forgacs, a biophysicist at the University of Missouri in Columbia, and the man behind 'bioprinting technique'. The emerging technology can be used successfully to repair damaged organs with the help of 'bioink', clumps of cells a few hundred micrometers in diameter.
To print a particular organ, 'biopaper', a gel, is fused with bioink, resulting in 3D structures. Any desired structure, including veins and arteries, can be printed with the help of this technology. Biopriniting is the future of tissue engineering and you'll soon be able to say, 'Please, print me a heart and a set of arteries.'
Newscientist throws more light on organ printing here.
Via: medgadget
