Printing Replacement Body Parts

Deep Penguin sends in a piece that appeared in The Economist a couple of weeks back about a developing technology to "print" body parts for transplant. "A US and an Australian company have developed the $200,000 machine, which works by depositing stem cells and a 'sugar-based hydrogel' scaffolding material. (The stem cells are harvested from a transplant patient's own fat and bone marrow, to avoid rejection down the line.) The companies are Organovo, from San Diego, specializing in regenerative medicine, and Invetech, an engineering and automation firm in Melbourne, Australia. The initial targets are skin, muscle, and 'short stretches of blood vessels,' which they hope to have available for human implantation within five years. Down the line, they expect the technology could even print directly into the body, bypassing the in-vitro portion of the current process."

One pancreas, please

[gbridge]

Being type 1 (insulin dependant) diabetic, the idea of having a new pancreas 'printed' is pretty appealing. I asked a doctor why they can't be transplanted like other organs and he said that it's because they're too fragile and would likely be damaged during the transplant process. It'd be great if printing a new one would work.

One can dream...

Re:Science Fiction

[Anonymous Coward]

No, you just need someone put all the data on torrent.

Re:Obligatory.

[daveime]

hahaha. I'm here all week.

Seems like much longer than that already.