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Biotech Medicine

Inside the Weird World of 3D Printed Body Parts 61

Posted by samzenpus from the pick-a-spleen-any-spleen dept.
An anonymous reader writes Last November a news report in Russia Today sent a shudder of excitement through the tech blogs that cover 3D printing: an eccentric Russian provocateur claimed he would this month start printing functioning thyroids. Tech reporter Andrew Leonard set out to fact-check that claim, and along the way discovered an unlikely relationship between a Russian mad scientist and the U.S.'s most advanced, most respected 3d bioprinting companies—TeVido, which aims to 3D print custom nipples, and Organovo, which sells samples of 3D printed liver tissue. In the field of 3D printing, the line between science fiction and peer-reviewed research is very, very thin.
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Inside the Weird World of 3D Printed Body Parts More

Inside the Weird World of 3D Printed Body Parts

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  • WWW (Score:3)

    by MrKaos ( 858439 ) on Thursday March 05, 2015 @08:17AM (#49187889) Journal
    Inside the Weird Wobbly World of 3D Printed Body Parts

  • Once again on the 3d printing bandwagon. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Rei ( 128717 ) on Thursday March 05, 2015 @08:19AM (#49187893) Homepage

    "3d printing" is the latest fad for Slashdotters to obsess over; meanwhile, in the real world, people are just going to use more established solutions. For example, where I work we're making great progress towards CNC-milling a pancreas.

    • Re:Once again on the 3d printing bandwagon. (Score:4, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 05, 2015 @08:31AM (#49187931)

      1. Where do you get your pancreas stock? I didn't even see it in the McMaster catalog.
      2. How do you fixture THAT?
      3. The crystalline structure of cast pancreas is far superior than billet pancreas.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by Rei ( 128717 )

        1. Alibaba.com. You can get anything there.
        2. Semipermanent subplate attached to the table with pin slots, surgical grade titanium plate pinned into position, pancreas stock welded into place with TIG set to the settings for pancreas stock of appropriate thickness (what can't you weld with TIG?)
        3. We find the mechanical properties of billet pancreas to be sufficient, and the higher precision and better finish reduce the odds of customer rejection.

  • The research is very interesting (Score:3)

    by rmdingler ( 1955220 ) on Thursday March 05, 2015 @08:31AM (#49187935) Journal
    FTA: They're already bioprinting human tissue for drug research, albeit it tiny amounts only guaranteed to live 40 days.

    The biggest obstacle to working organs seems to be the inclusion of vasculature to the tissues for sustenance, but that is being worked out.

    This seems promising. Financing is an initial hurdle since it's a medical procedure requiring lengthy testing and approval. Investors aren't flocking in for an expected payout of years or decades.

    • Re:The research is very interesting (Score:4, Interesting)

      by toppavak ( 943659 ) on Thursday March 05, 2015 @09:52AM (#49188457)
      Printed parts are still by far inferior to more conventionally produced alternatives. For organs with 3D architecture, by far the most successful approaches have been to basically seed the relevant cell types in layers on a gel or degradable fiber based scaffold. Anthony Atala's group at Wake Forest (no association, just a fan of their work) has made replacement urethras [aeurologia.com] and bladders [sciencedirect.com] among many others that have actually been implanted in patients. I believe the bladder work is currently in a phase II clinical trial on its way to becoming more widely available. Sangeeta Bhatia's [mit.edu] group has done amazing work on liver tissue, although their focus has been on laboratory samples for drug testing rather than implantation for the time being. They actually do use a 3D printing approach to their work but only to build a sugar-based scaffold that can dissolve away and leave space for blood vessels to be engineered. The tissue itself is just dumped onto the scaffold in a gel slurry and organizes itself.

      I think 3D printing tissues is a rather short-sighted approach to assembling structures whose function and shape is self-organized. The most successful approaches thus far (in terms of having products on the market or organs in people) have been strategies that rely on the intrinsic self-organization of tissues. Even more complex structures such as the colonic epithelium [rsc.org] can be generated this way.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Printed parts are still by far inferior to more conventionally produced alternatives. For organs with 3D architecture, by far the most successful approaches have been to basically seed the relevant cell types in layers on a gel or degradable fiber based scaffold

        How is this mutually exclusive with 3d printing? You "simply" print the scaffold and the tissues at the same time and then let the cells self organize from there. The printing part is simply giving the cells an approximately optimal structure to begin with instead of letting them grow more naturally which takes more time. Obviously the smaller details of the vascular system is the issue, but presumably with a fine enough resolution you could print even the smallest of capillaries. But yes, it would be g

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by bigpat ( 158134 )

      This seems promising. Financing is an initial hurdle since it's a medical procedure requiring lengthy testing and approval. Investors aren't flocking in for an expected payout of years or decades.

      I would think that you could make more rapid progress since this would be considered as experimenting on human tissue samples outside of the body which is less onerously regulated. It would only be when you think you are ready for transplants that it becomes a medical procedure subject to the more stringent approval process.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by 0123456 ( 636235 )

        Or you could just do it in a sane country that encourages innovation.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by bigpat ( 158134 )
          I would agree that just experimenting with tissue samples outside the body shouldn't be highly regulated, but if you are talking about actual transplants I think you need to be sure that is safe.

  • TeVido, which aims to 3D print custom nipples

    Hmmm ... apparently I am unversed in the realm of custom nipples, as I've never conceived of it before. Is this a thing I've been missing?

    So, I guess we can have an informal Slashdot poll ... if you were going to have custom nipples it would look like:

    1) Smiley faces
    2) Tux
    3) The Windows Logo
    4) Monkeys
    5) USB ports
    6) Cowboy Neal
    7) Cupcakes
    8) Hearts
    9) AC/DC's logo
    10) Yoda

    I for one welcome our new, custom-nipple overlords.

    • Re:Custom ... nipples? Actual custom nipples? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by OzPeter ( 195038 ) on Thursday March 05, 2015 @08:53AM (#49188049)

      TeVido, which aims to 3D print custom nipples

      Hmmm ... apparently I am unversed in the realm of custom nipples, as I've never conceived of it before. Is this a thing I've been missing?

      Why don't you find a breast cancer survivor who has had a mastectomy and ask her about the subject?

      • Are you suggesting he track down a cancer survivor and ask her to show him her tits? I must say it's not a tactic I've heard working before.

      • Somewhere there will be a twisted church with rabid dog doctrines that insists that GAWD assigns breast disease to females and that the ravages of surgical treatments for breast cancer must be displayed permanently and that repair of a female breast violates GAWDS will. There is nothing more idiotic than a morality freak trying to establish the right and wrong of things for others.

        • How 'bout a church where they furiously attack off-topioc self-constructed imaginary strawmen?

          Oh, wait, we have Slashdot. Carry on.

      • You know, you are 100% correct, and that literally didn't occur to me.

        I was thinking purely voluntary nipple upgrades, and was baffled.

        Don't forget, it's easy to forget stuff like this .. most of us take nipples for granted, and don't focus on their existence very much.

        Cheers

      • If you know a breast cancer survivor personally, they are generally pretty open about those sort of questions.

        I had one friend complain about how her plastic surgeon kept on getting the placement of the nipple on the wrong spot. She eventually went to the OR with a smiley face where she wanted the nipple placed.

        A second friend said her plastic surgeon kept on pushing for nipple preservation but she was quite content (wouldn't say happy) without one. She did feel less of a woman for a while afterwards, but

      • TeVido, which aims to 3D print custom nipples

        Hmmm ... apparently I am unversed in the realm of custom nipples, as I've never conceived of it before. Is this a thing I've been missing?

        Why don't you find a breast cancer survivor who has had a mastectomy and ask her about the subject?

        At the same time, you may want to ask why they would be willing to go to a company that can't even spell correctly, to get body parts, given that they've demonstrated poor quality control already.

        From the front page of the TeVido web site:

        "Our first product is targeted to improve nipple reconstruction and later fill lumpectomies and other fat grating needs."

        I suppose that this is supposed to be "fat grafting", unless they plan on pulling a full-on "Dr. Lector", or they are 3D printing parmesan cheese.

    • Actually, replacement nipples could be a huge step forward for women who are facing a mastectomy. Their choices are 1) mastectomy and reconstruction with no nipple, 2) mastectomy and reconstruction with a tattoo where the nipple was, or 3) a "nipple-sparing" mastectomy, which is a much more difficult procedure, carries risks because some tissue gets left behind, isn't always appropriate/possible for women with small breasts, and sometimes fails.

      I was dating somebody a few years ago who was diagnosed with br

  • Russia Today is quite openly the a foreign propaganda arm of the Russian Govt. that doesn't even pretend to be independent. It's not a complete 100% laughingstock (or nobody would watch it), but I wouldn't put a whole lot of stock in reports of astounding breakthroughs without a little more evidence (like a clinical trial, for instance).

    • Russia Today is quite openly the a foreign propaganda arm of the Russian Govt. that doesn't even pretend to be independent.

      I'm sorry, but did you miss the decade in which both Fox and CNN were doing the same in America?

      • And did you see me saying that either of those were excellent sources of science news?

        No, you didn't.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by amiga3D ( 567632 )

      Killjoy. People like you suck the fun out of everything.

    • Russia Today is quite openly the a foreign propaganda arm of the Russian Govt. that doesn't even pretend to be independent.

      And NPR is a mouthpiece for liberals. That doesn't mean their stories are wrong, just that they listener needs to carefully distinguish fact from spin.

  • With the rapidly increasing volume of 3D printers, all that's needed is for somebody to come up with an extruder and latex filament. Which sounds dirty but I didn't mean it that way.

  • As the Tin Man sang: "If I only had a brain...!" - I can't wait 'till they print me a new hippocampus so that I can confidently store long-term memories again!

    • As the Scarecrow sang: "If I only had a brain...!" - I can't wait 'till they print me a new hippocampus so that I can confidently store long-term memories again!

      FTFY

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