Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
Even if it were possible to 3D print living veins, however, that still wouldn't
complete the job. Similar to the bioreactor-inlicted pounding required to pro-
cess cartilage from petri dish into mature tissue, a highly vascularized body
part—even if it were possible to print one—can't just be popped directly into
the body—it needs to grow in. New arteries and veins must knit themselves
into existing arteries and veins.
James Yoo, a professor at the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake
Forest University, described the challenge, “How can we create and connect
those tissues produced outside the body? Whatever you put in the body has to
be connected with the body's blood vessels, blood supply and oxygen. That's
one of the challenges we'll face with larger tissues.”
The biotech researchers of the future are already working on solutions. Yaser
Shanjani, a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University, will soon join the ranks
medical researchers who view 3D printing and design software as critical tools
in medical research. “I believe the future of tissue engineering will be incredibly
integrated with 3D printing,” he said. Yaser's specialty is printing bone grafts, or
in more technical lingo “3D printing bioresorbable inorganic polymeric mate-
rial,” that after implantation eventually knit into the patient's body.
Yaser believes that a holistic approach that combines 3D printing technol-
ogy, design software, and the body's own growth factors is the best path for-
ward. Throughout his graduate career, Yaser has worked with interdisciplinary
teams of biologists, surgeons, and material and manufacturing experts. “An
ideal bone implant is an engineered construct that mimics natural tissue in
terms of geometry, micro-structure and biomechanical behavior, and is even-
tually replaced with natural tissue,” he explained.
I asked Yaser what he would do with the money if he were given several
millions of dollars to spend on advancing bioprinting. His answer was swift
and certain. “I would spend some of the funding on learning to print organs
that are made of implantable materials seeded with bioagents (such as stem
cells and growth factors). Next, I would like to see printers on site in operating
rooms. Then, the big dream would to be send micro-robots into the patient's
body where they could print new organs.”
Printing living tissue and new organs directly inside a body would be a
radical and lifesaving medical breakthrough. Printing inside the body could
dramatically improve the survival rate of soldiers wounded on a battleield or
accident victims in emergency rooms. In less medically urgent situations, the
ability to print precisely shaped living tissue would open up new areas of medi-
cal care and surgical training and enable new methods of drug development.
