New Technique Can Bioprint Living Tissue In Seconds (engadget.com) 19
An anonymous reader quotes Engadget:
Bioprinting holds great potential for repairing injuries, testing drugs or replacing whole organs, but it's currently limited in complexity, viability and speed -- you can't just create tissue on a whim. Soon, though, it might be a matter of crafting whatever you need when you need it. Scientists at EPFL and University Medical Center Utrecht have developed an optical system that can bioprint complex, highly viable living tissue in "just a few seconds." It would represent a breakthrough compared to the clunky, layer-based processes of today.
The approach, volumetric bioprinting, forms tissue by projecting a laser down a spinning tube containing hydrogel full of stem cells. You can shape the resulting tissue simply by focusing the laser's energy on specific locations to solidify them, creating a useful 3D shape within seconds. After that, it's a matter of introducing endothelial cells to add vessels to the tissue.
The resulting tissues are currently just a few inches across. That's still enough to be "clinically useful," EPFL said, and has already been used to print heart-like valves, a complex femur part and a meniscus. It can create interlocking structures, too.
The approach, volumetric bioprinting, forms tissue by projecting a laser down a spinning tube containing hydrogel full of stem cells. You can shape the resulting tissue simply by focusing the laser's energy on specific locations to solidify them, creating a useful 3D shape within seconds. After that, it's a matter of introducing endothelial cells to add vessels to the tissue.
The resulting tissues are currently just a few inches across. That's still enough to be "clinically useful," EPFL said, and has already been used to print heart-like valves, a complex femur part and a meniscus. It can create interlocking structures, too.
"Highly viable" = "decades away from being viable" (Score:2)
Seriously, why has everything to be hyped all out of proportion?
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Seriously, why has everything to be hyped all out of proportion?
Decades of being subjected to the advertisers' increasingly shrill exhortations have deadened our perceptions. Where it used to be enough to say "This might happen" to get our attention, now we need promises of miracles that will arrive by the end of the week.
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Indeed.
"Step 14: Then a miracle happens" (Score:2)
Nice, but with the inclusion of this, the technological achievement is akin to proclaiming you've successfully put a PHP front end on a third party AI component that adapts to any use case, and automatically generates and executes arbitrarily-complex algorithms appropriate to its application context.
I'm more impressed by the Design of the hard part.
Re:"Step 14: Then a miracle happens" (Score:4, Informative)
Why would stem cells be the problem? Inducing epithelial cells to become pluripotent stem cells is already solved.
Go give a sample, come back in two weeks to get a stucturally-sound heart valve implanted that's not a rejection risk?
That's Nobel Prize in Medicine material
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Nobel Prize, perhaps, but all the interesting enabling "technology" is something that no person can take any credit for.
Again, this is like having a software component that has as it's application, "Oh, have any type of bug whatsoever in your application, or just don't know how to finish it? Just paste this into whatever code you have a problem with, and it automatically fixes it."
That's amazing, and not the work of bipedal hominids.
Re:"Step 14: Then a miracle happens" (Score:4, Funny)
Just a little joke... On topic....
There was a scientist one time, and he went to talk to God and he says, "God, we can now clone humans, make life, and take care of ourselves and we don't need you anymore."
God laughed and said: "You think? So show me, how you can make humans and life!"
The scientist agreed, reached down, grabbed a full hand of soil to start making his human, when God promptly stops him and says, "Whoa not so fast, use your own dirt."
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Classic.
Also amusing to present as a hypothetical news headline:
"(x) generates human clone from DNA derived from rib marrow"
Toggle between "(x) = genetic engineer" and "(x) = God" and see the Slashdot reaction flip like a drunk Scotsman...
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The scientist agreed, reached down, grabbed a full hand of soil to start making his human, when God promptly stops him and says, "Whoa not so fast, use your own dirt."
God gave us all the seed-bearing plants and all the animals for our use, and the soil is made out of plants and animals which have decomposed. He can have the dirt back when he stops using our topsoil.
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Differentiation pathways. You print an organ from demethylated pluripotent cells alright, but they turn into a mash of teeth and eyes at best, and cancer at worst.
Can they do it more like a FDM printer? (Score:2)
Because being able to print a meniscus in place would be pretty dope.
So if I feel sad in the future (Score:1)
I can just print a living clone of my boss to torture.
"Hey Siri, print me a plate of spotted owl wings." (Score:2)
Even being able to print freshly dead tissue could be a major advance.
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I like Apple stuff but if Siri made it I will not touch it with a ten foot pole.
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It would be great for nearly extinct species if we could just print their skins, horns and whatnot.
Wound healing? (Score:2)
I wonder if this has an application in wound healing. There are several million people with slow healing wounds post operation and from things like ulcers. If you could put the structure in there to replace lost tissue perhaps the body's natural healing process can progress much faster?
Gesundheit! (Score:2)