Overview Of Chemistry

By definition, chemistry is the scientific branch concerned with atoms, molecules, chemical elements and how they form compounds and undergo reactions.

Researchers at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts General Hospital have finally created a beating heart using stem cell tissue. Previous research has used 3D printing technology to create heart segments out of cellular material. These segments did not have any actual heart tissue but had the proper scaffolding to anchor growing heart tissue.

In the past, the only way to replace diminished cells, tissues, and organs was from organ transplantation. An organ donor was needed, and the tissues would be surgically removed from the donated body and placed into the recipient. Due to the current research being conducted, it is believed that tissue engineering and organ printing can contribute to the process of improving and saving lives.

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

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.

Professor Yin Xiao is a world leader in bone and tissue regeneration, with memberships to several international dental and bone research societies. Specialising in biomedical engineering and medical physics, Yin has all the background experience and resources required to complete this degree successfully; stem cells, osteoarthritis, and tissue engineering.

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

Stem cells could be life saving to millions of patients all over the world. But, this method of curing is extremely difficult to research and perfect, due to the limited

These cell structures have been shown to replicate human physiology, diseases and drug response (PETA, n.d). Not only can cells replicate humans’ responses, they are also cheaper. Cells in culture are easier to molecularly manipulate, faster, cheaper and more reproducible than animal models (navs, n.d).

Science has presented us with a hope that can revolutionize medicine called stem cell research, which may provide answers to what have been for so long beyond our grasp. It holds enormous promises for alleviating human suffering and improvement of human condition that will benefit millions of people. This could give us infinite possibilities and extend our lives greatly, but could it also change our society? As we advance forward into the pursuit of regenerative properties of stem cell, we deserve the choices that stem cell might someday offer and harness its live giving potential.

First, 3D printing is very beneficial to the medical field. 3D printing in medicine can be used in order to create exact replicas of certain organs so that they can study it without risking the patient’s life. ("3D Printing in the Medicine: Saving Time and Saving Lives | ABAAD." ABAAD. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Mar. 2014.) 3D printers use materials such as bio-ink, which comprises stem cells and other types of cells from a patient, which can be laid down layer by layer to form a tissue. Human organs such as blood vessels, bladders and kidney portions have been replicated using this technology. 3D printers also use materials such as bone material, skin

3D printing has had a big impact on medicine and has a been a big help . 3D printing technology will allow new discoveries in medicine to happen faster since new prototypes will be modelled quick. It will soon be possible to create implants that fit our individual needs and differences from bone implants to prosthetic limbs and devices used by dentists. “ realistically”. Were going to be living to 100...110. With bio-printer orgams, living to 110 wont be anything like living to that age today” contends Jack uldrich.A technology trend expert.” were already printing skin kidneys a replica of a beating human heart. If a person loses a limb well be able to print, layer by layer, a replacement and it's theoretically possible.( 3D- printing- save-the-world page one) It also can be bad to use it

When cell populations are used to form tissues and organs, proper 3D systems, with clinically relevant dimensions, are required to eventually scale up these findings into effective new treatments. 6