3D Bioprinting: Eradicating Transplantation Waiting Lists And Testing Drugs On Living Tissues
Published in Bioprinting.
From time to time, news arises about 3D-printed organs. On such occasions, people usually think that a machine can already create readily available, implantable human organs. However, the reality is far from this optimistic image.
Researchers worldwide are working on possible solutions: from a group that printed a miniature kidney, through technological solutions like BioAssemblyBot we wrote about earlier, to entirely new methods that can lead to patient-specific heart tissue printing. The list is long and set in a clinical setting. We checked out where the technology stands today and where it might lead us in healthcare tomorrow.
3D bioprinting can be the response to worldwide organ shortages and the increasing reluctance to test new cosmetic, chemical, and pharmaceutical products on animals. Whether it will become a reality anytime soon is not certain, although research efforts have grown rapidly over the past years. As seen in this video, the technology behind bioprinting is getting better and (much) faster. However, this hydrogen-based technology is still not bioprinting – it is not the content but the printing technology itself. However, a breakthrough might be just around the corner.