Organ Printing

Dr. Gabor Forgacs made that prediction. Now, he is making it a reality. Gabor is a University of Missouri researcher doing groundbreaking work in regenerative medicine. He is also the Scientific Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Organovo, the latest company to receive support from you, the donors of the Methuselah Foundation.

As we work to identify breakthrough technology that will help us reach our shared goal of extending healthy human life, Organovo stands out. Thanks to your contributions we are able to assist them as they apply their proprietary technology to "print" new organs.
Organovo: Printing Organs

The "ink" in the bioprinting process employed by Organovo is composed of spheres packed with tens of thousands of human cells. These spheres are assembled or "printed" on sheets of organic biopaper. By precisely placing the cells with the bioprinter, and providing them with the proper natural developmental cues, they do exactly what they do in nature: they self assemble into fully formed, functional tissue.

The unique science blends biophysics and cell biology with computer aided design and high precision deposition to recreate the micro-architecture of the most complex human tissue. Organovo is currently developing blood vessels and intends to use the same technology to create organs or bio-constructs that reproduce organ function.

Dr. Forgacs envisions fully implantable organs printed from a patient's own cells. "You give us your cells: we grow them, we print them, the structure forms and we are ready to go," he says. "I am pretty sure that full organs will be on the market [one day]." These organs may not look like our organs but they will function just like the real thing.

The Possibilities for Transplants
Organ printing allows new tissue to replace diseased tissue. Since new tissue can be developed from cell sources from your own body, rejection of transplanted tissue is not an issue. The cells can be taken from youthful progenitor cells in your bone marrow to replace the older diseased cells. The cells ability to self-assemble means they will organize themselves into a functional tissue after being positioned.

This is where Organovo stands out: the challenges in using stem cells for medical therapies have shown that the results of injecting cells in solution are limited - cells alone can only do so much. But a functional piece of tissue from the patient's own progenitor cells, which can be matured outside the organism, ex vivo, under conditions similar to those it will see in vivo, can add tremendously to the therapeutic power of the cells themselves.

Tissue on Demand

The company anticipates becoming the leader in surgical tools made from human cells; providing raw material in the form of tissue for surgeons use. According to Organovo CEO Keith Murphy, "We expect our tissue printing technology to become the underlying foundation for 3D tissue research in the future. By enabling researchers all over the world to compose their functional tissue of interest and conduct research upon it, we can speed medical research across the spectrum and bring new tissue types to patients sooner."

Thanks to your continued support we are able to assist Organovo as they develop practical solutions to the problems of aging. This is a practical example of how we might see significant progress in extending our healthy lifespan.

• Category

  Science & Technology

[Koen Van Roy]

@3004z

Why would that be the case ? The fact that (by example) every european needs to have health insurance (by law!) keeps the expensive and longitudinal health interventions out of capitalist speculation. If replacing a malfunctioning liver by a printed new one ones becomes the standard, the implications should be no different for the rich or the poor or the middle class. Your health insurance will cover it since they can't discriminate over essential things.

[Koen Van Roy]

@3004z

Thats why you Americans need to support Obama !

[beast6228]

Right now it's in the early stages, but I am going to take a wild guess that 30 years from now this technology will be fairly common, but not perfected. 100 years from now and I am sure they will have it mastered. We've come a long way in a short period of time and it's very exciting that some day humans may live longer than we do now. I am sure only the rich will benefit, but still amazing nevertheless.

[schederpetel]

Iirc there is no real freedom of expression. There are always things you cannot say (heck, you can't even sing the happy birthday song outdoors cos it's copyrighted). Doesn't the government deny some people their freedom of expression just because they don't like their behavior? So how come these people can be denied of their freedom of speech 'for the greater good', while others can't be denied the freedom of health care using the same logic?

[J Gecik]

Embryonic stem cell research is also extremely prone to catastrophic failure. Outside a few gimmicks like growing ears on a rat or two, nothing has been achieved.

[J Gecik]

The fact of the matter is that society cannot treat everyone. Economic scarcity is a fact of life and rationing entails even for readily available products. The market rations by price (which attracts new competencies to the market, driving down prices), the govt rations however it likes which leads to inefficiencies, shortages and grossly inferior care.

[J Gecik]

In a private situation, you'd have a point, but the idea is that you have a "right" to health care. If you have a right to a service, that service cannot be denied just because the authorities that be don't like your behavior. It would be like denying the freedom of expression to an American citizen.

[J Gecik]

None of that is correct. At all. Requirements to have any product only drive up costs in every case, even outside of the health insurance agency. Privatization of the insurance industry has only ever dropped prices, improved coverage and reduced waste in the industry overall (a la the car insurance industry). Neat video, but you need to learn a thing or two about economics.

[Ronaldoo91]

LMAO

[dyingtolive123]

Something tells me this technology will end up mostly printing bigger penises lol.

[Bird26770]

hi alien :) 

[zsdg34]

So in 2075 when I'm 80 I can replace most of my organs with a younger version of my organs to live to 110? :D