Printing Organs And The Human Body

3D printing or additive manufacturing is a process of making three-dimensional solid objects from a digital design. The creation of a 3D printed object is achieved using additive processes. In an additive process the desired object is created by laying down successive layers of material (usually molten alloy or plastics) until the entire object is formed. Each of these layers can be seen as a thinly sliced horizontal cross-section of the eventual object.

As 3D printing transitions from commercial manufacturing use to personal private use individuals will have the ability to print any design. Products can range from a pair of shoes to complicated engineering designs, life-saving devices, prosthetic limbs and weapons that pass airport security. In the future we will likely see printable medications and

Tissue engineering is an emerging interdisciplinary field that uses principles from engineering, biology and chemistry in an effort towards tissue regeneration. The main draw of tissue engineering is the regeneration of a patient’s own tissues and organs free from low biofunctionality and poor biocompatibility and serious immune rejection. As medical care continues to improve and life expectancy continues to grow, organ shortages become more problematic.(Manufacturing living things) According to organdonor.gov, a patient is added to the waiting list every 10 minutes and an average of 18 people die everyday waiting for an organ donation. The “nirvana” of tissue engineering is to replace the need for organ donation altogether. This could be achieved using scaffolding from

The field of bioprinting, using 3D printing technology for producing live cells with extreme accuracy, could be the answer to many of the problems we as humans face in the medical field. It could be the end to organ waiting lists and an alternative for organ transplants. In 3D printing technology lies the potential to replace the testing of new drugs on animals. However, the idea of applying 3 dimensional printing to the health industry is still quite new and yet to have a major impact. Manufacturing working 3D organs remains an enormous challenge, but in theory could solve major issues present today.

In a study conducted through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on “average 79 people will receive an organ each day; however, an average of 22 people die each day” waiting for transplants that cannot take place because of the shortage of donated organs (U.S. D.H.H.S). The average amount of patients waiting for an organ can reduce to zero with the continued development of 3-D printers. 3-D printing is a process of making three dimensional solid objects from a digital file. The digital file is uploaded onto a computer software, and then the 3-D printer prints the digital file out onto different materials. The materials include plastic, resin, nylon, sandstone. The finish products become replicas of the digital file, and what was an idea is now a reality. Therefore, 3-D printers will one day be the future of organ transplants because over the past twenty years the technology industry has rapidly grown into the focal point in society. From advancement in communication, to the medical field, science and technology has shaped this world today. Thus, the American Government should invest more money into the medical field budget because the research conducted on new technology (3-D Printers) leads to more lives saved, and expands the opportunity of future medical breakthroughs.

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.

My exploration of this topic led me to an article on HuffingtonPost.com. The article is “How 3D Printing Could End The Deadly Shortage of Donor Organs” by Macrina Cooper-White. In said article,

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).

Aside from these state level approaches, 3D printing offers a promise for increasing available organs. This promise was validated in 2016, when a toddler from Northern Ireland became the “first to have a life-saving adult kidney transplant, using 3D printing.” While much work still needs to be done, printed organs, in addition to other proposed solutions, are alternatives to creating human-pig chimeras for organ transplantation.

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.

Skin is the body’s largest organ (Printer). Now that doctors and scientist have been successful printing skin their next step is to print organs. Soon we will live in a world where transplant lists do not exist (Rivero). It is expected that in 2025 the 3-D printing industry will be worth more than a 1,000,000,000 dollars (Chang). As of now creating a printer that prints organs is a very big challenge that will not ruin the horizon of tomorrow. Improving the 3-D bioprinter has changed the we live by having being an easy skin substitute, treating severe burns and for cosmetic

Why go to stores and spend lots of money buying toys, jewelry, cups and many other plastic utilities when you can only press one button and print them out for yourself. This futuristic idea is not only innovating the scientific and technological world, but it is also innovating modern day households. The possibilities of 3D printing are extremely captivating, making this one of the most exciting innovations in recent times. 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, makes three-dimensional solid objects from a digital model or command. To picture how this process works, 3D printers use an additive process, where adding layers of a successive material creates an object. Traditional machines, however, uses a subtractive process by

3D Printing is a unique kind of printing system, which takes a 3D image file and creates a physical 3D image. As I mentioned before 3D files are generated from what is called a .stl file, which is a compressed triangular meshed surface. “These .stl files were originally intended for a rapid prototyping process called Stereolithography, and in the beginning were generated by CAD programs; however, because MRI and CT’s are surface scans, they too can generate a .stl file. These .stl files have become a world standard for exchanging 3D mesh type objects between programs” (McNeel, Sep. 2015, par. 3). Since MRI’s and CT’s can be scanned and converted into stl files it has paved the way into many different aspects of the medical and dental industry for 3D printing. When I say the medical and dental industry I am talking about many different avenues within those industries.

3D-printing may be made with many different materials. Different materials can be used to print 3D-prosthetics which result in different ranges of durability and strength. There are several benefits to the different materials. There is a balance between

All the techniques contain advantages and disadvantages, but a problem that needs solving before used clinically, is advancing the printer technology. A 3D-printed organ must contain the ability to perform all the functions of a real organ as