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With very new technology, we always come across some opinions that didn’t convince with the technology yet. Also while organ printing may seem like it has no disadvantages, there are some ethical issues in the 3D printed organs.

In the future, the technology will be widely accepted since it can be used to create complete organ, to test newly developed drugs on manufactured cells instead of animals and human cell, to imprint cells directly onto a human body, thus reducing the wait time for organ transplantation, and save time and cost associated with drug research. An absolutely favorable position of customized organs is designing organs utilizing a patient 's own particular cells. With this methodology, there would be no issues with dismissal, and patients wouldn 't need to take the powerful anti-rejection medications that are presently required (Cooper-White, 2015). According to the Organovo company, the formation of a suitable liver is a crunch second for the bio-printing and drug industry since it demonstrates 3D printed tissue can be preserved successfully for a sufficient time to test the impacts of medications on it or insert it in a human body where it can further mature (Mearian,2013).

SINcE I hAVE ALwAYS BEEN INTErESTEd in science and technology, I subscribed to many research magazines, including Popular Science and Scientific American. However, until 10th grade, I never had the opportunity to contribute to medical research—something that I had always wanted to do. Then, one day I read an article titled “Print Me a Pancreas, Please” in Popular Science, which described novel tissue engineering research involving modification of off-the-shelf inkjet printers to print out living cells in a “bioink” solution. Having read much about tissue engineering, I realized this “organ printing” approach could potentially address problems of traditional tissue engineering methods, such as the need to precisely place specific cell types in 3D scaffolds. I was so excited that I came up with a few ideas of my own about advancing the

Because of its increasing use in other areas of the medical field, physical therapists will likely have an amplified exposure to some form of 3D printed technology, especially in relation to the bioprinting of skin cells, joints, and cartilage. In the past year, Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine pioneered efforts utilizing the technology for skin grafting. A portable scanner is used to estimate the depth of a burn, which is important in determining the types of “ink”, or cells, to be printed, and then prints new skin cells directly onto a burn victim in a very precise manner (source). Due to an increasing number of people receiving hip and knees arthroplasties, 3D printing is also being explored as a means of producing a more personalized fitting implant that lasts equally long or longer than traditionally made artificial joints. One research group is exploring the use of calcium polyphosphate bone “ink” coated in the patient’s own (stem cell) tissue as a means to producing more natural, longer-lasting replacements. Another group has developed a high strength fully-porous titanium material with tunable mechanical properties in order to reduce the amount of bone loss seen in solid joint replacements (source). Bioprinting is also changing how surgeons might soon approach cartilaginous repairs. Traditionally, meniscal tears are treated by cutting off sharp parts and smoothing the remainder of the cartilage; transplants are rarely used due to tissue compatibility issues and stock implants are difficult to fit to a diverse range of patients. As of mid-2016, Active Implants has been recruiting for a second round of human trials to determine the ability of its 3D-printed medical polymer-made meniscal implants to withstand high compressive loads over time frame of greater than 10 years. In separate clinical trials, scientists at Cornell and Columbia Universities are testing 3D

Bioprinting offers the ability to create a 3D biomimetic tissue by patterning cells and, in some approaches, multiple cell types with precise and reproducible spatial control. In order to create these organs a researcher must start off with a bioink consisting of compounds with a chemical structure consisting of polysaccharides and/or proteins. Some of the compounds include, but are not limited to agar, collagen, silk, elastin, and chitosan. These bioinks are then infused with additives that include growth factors, cytokines, and extracellular matrix (Bioprinting 4-12). Bioprinting then “moves from the laboratory to the clinic sources, clinical grade cells will be necessary to support the assembly of different constructs” This is where stem cells from the patient, if possible, are utilized to prevent the use of immunosuppressive drugs. (Bioprinting 4-12). Once everything is loaded into the biopen, it is then loaded into the bioprinter (fig 1, 2). Researchers are then able to make tissues, organs, and many other structural components.

As a result, a researcher from Wake Forest University named Professor Anthony Atala did a TED talk in 2011 on a demonstration on how to print a living human kidney, in which after the demonstration caused confusion in the crowd due to the research being in the early research stage and has never been previously used for a viable organ transplant (Lipson and Kurman 7). The TED talk demonstration was the world’s first introduction to the use of bio-printing viable organs for possible transplantation. In consideration of the TED talk, researchers have begun to harvest stem cells to 3-D print, in hopes to integrate with the existing tissue to produce viable organs and other body parts (Griggs 8). The bio-printing process has begun to have some success with clinical trials. In 2013, a surgeon named Doctor Paolo Macchiarini had a patient that is a 2-year old girl named Hannah from Illinois, who was born without a trachea (Griggs 9). Dr. Macchiarini created a bio-printed trachea from Hannah’s own stem cells and bone marrow, after in which he performed the 9-hour operation (Griggs 9). As a result, Dr. Macchiarini allowed Hannah to breath on her own and he will monitor her throughout her life, but for right now she is responding well to the transplant (Sifferlin 2). In result, bio-printing may begin to save and improve a lot of individuals’ life. Since, each day 18 people die in the

Anthony Atala, in his 2011 Ted Talk, Printing a Human Kidney, tells of printing a bladder. He explains that they use a small piece of the patients original bladder. They then print a scaffold and let the cells grow on the scaffolding in an “oven like device” that has the “same conditions as the human body -- 37 degrees centigrade, 95 percent oxygen” Weeks later, the organ has grown and it is ready to be placed in the patient. Atala explains that “For these specific patients, we actually just suture these materials. We use three-dimensional imagining analysis, but we actually created these biomaterials by hand.”Luke Massella, a patient who received a 3D printed organ because he was born with spina bifida that prevented his bladder and kidneys

“A 3D printer is a computer run machine, which has the ability to print out objects layer by layer” (Griggs Para.1). The new advancement is a 3D organ printer that will print out human organs using embryonic stem cells. “To complete this process first scientist harvest stem cells, allowing them to double in a petri dish. The stem cell mixture can then be placed into a 3D printer, which is encoded to create an organ” (Griggs Para. 8). The technology for bioprinting isn’t yet complete but within the next few years bioprinting will be a real possibility. With the help of bioprinting, patients who have been waiting on organ transplant lists will no longer have to wait month or years for a compatible organ. Organ transplant wait times could be shortened days. With the use of this technology, “people who would once have to wait in anticipation on whether or not they would even receive an organ, will have the ability to get a brand new organ print from their own cells” (Hsu Para.2). Recently, a group of scientist tested a similar process by bioengineering a trachea for piglets made from the stem cells of different piglets (Castillo Para. 4). It was concluded, “three months after the bioengineered trachea was planted, the baby pig tripled in weight and doubled in size" (Castillo Para. 4). This proves the bioengineered trachea caused no harm to the piglet; it allowed them to grow and mature the

"The goal of tissue engineering is to create an implantable construct that eventually transforms into"

This study that was published revealed that scientists are believing this is possible because they have invented a 3D printing machine that is capable of printing cartilage. As the Discovery News tells it, this printer is being dubbed the Integrated Tissue and Organ Printing System and it could be the printer of the future. What the scientists are planning on doing could lead to synthetic organs being in development. If Michael Jackson was still alive, I am sure he would be salivating at the mouth at the thought of this.

second that goes by, researchers are creating effective ways that can save more American lives. In the world of medicine today, there are many issues in health care we cannot solve. The lack of organs and tissues in America results in patients either dying or being put on waiting lists. There are no guarantees that the organ transplant will get to a person in time. Waiting for a perfect donor can take weeks and sometimes years for some patients. The lack of necessary organs is what has caused this organ transplantation crisis in America. This is what has driven many researchers to develop a new solution called three dimensional bio printing and tissue engineering.

(n.d) explained that there is a group of scientist from Harvard, Stanford and MIT that have been able to create a material from seaweed, print out the shape of blood vessels then covered them in a protein. Capillaries form approximately a week later. the article “Scientists print human circulatory system”. (n.d), one hurdle that scientist must overcome is a development of a method to print a human circulatory system. The article continues with, this is the crucial system that brings blood and nutrients to the organs in the body, which is the same system that removes waste. Without this circulatory system in place, the cells die. Even with these advancements there is still a long way to go to be able to print human organs “Scientists print human circulatory system”.

Printing organs has been talked about and attempted to be used for close to 40 years. Printing organs can help with advancements in many ways because it could help many of the people that are on the Organ Transplanting List, not to mention it could save countless lives as well. If organs are able to be printed and executed for procedures and transplants, then we could reduce hospital bills that increase during the time that you are waiting for an organ. Therefore, making a large advancement in the healthcare field. Organ printing can be very difficult and must be executed very carefully considering that the body may reject the new organ. Three-dimensional (3D) printing is a manufacturing method in which objects are made by fusing or depositing materials—such as plastic, metal, ceramics, powders, liquids, or even living cells—in layers to produce a 3D object (Ventola, October 2014). It is incredible to see how such materials can be used to be put together to make a living organism that can be used in a human’s body. As a person ages this could be very useful because organs tend to fail and become weak when a person gets older they could potentially be used to replace the failing organs.

The image of an ear growing on the an example of biomedical engineering where new body organs can be grown on the recipients body. The ear is fully functional and it can be transplanted to patients who need them. This art works indicates that scientists will soon solve the problem of organ failure and amputation by extracting cells and growing new organs on the bodies of the patients. In this way, engineering will serve as an alternative to organ donation that currently suffers from scarcity of donors.

There is no underestimating the importance of blood vessels to the human circulatory system. They supply organs with vital nutrients and remove hazardous waste. Up until now, creating a synthetic network of blood vessels has been scientifically out of reach. Using a 3-D bioprinting technique, a team of researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston has successfully managed to fabricate blood vessels. This achievement could be a significant boon to the lives of more than 105,000 Americans awaiting organ donations.