Article from Noseweek Magazine April 2016.
IN NOSE 197 ALEXANDRA DODD outlined the animal rights movement’s worries about the burgeoning field of medical practice that involves introducing human cells into the living bodies of animals (mainly pigs and chimpanzees) – to grow human organs for harvesting.
Dr Julia Baines, science policy ad-visor to PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), was quoted as saying that this new “technological sadism” could well be unnecessary. She said that the world’s most forward-thinking scientists are developing and using methods which supersede the crude use of animals.
“With more investment and use of humane, cutting-edge technology, we’ll have much better science than the monstrous ‘Frankenscience’ of creating human-animal hybrids.”
Within days of that article appearing in Noseweek, Design Indaba reported in it’s online newsletter: “A group of scientists are furthering the development of printing human tissue.”
Last year, a research paper published in the journal, Nature Biotechnology, detailed these scientists’ ability to fabricate cartilage, bone and muscle structures. The report said it was possible to print a human ear using a 3D – bioprinter that they had invented.
The aim of this bioprinting technology is to quickly create tissue that can be used for an organ transplant. The organs printed by the new machine are made up of a plastic-like, porous mat-ter punctuated with tiny microchannels that act as a capillary framework. The porous material allows the body’s natural living tissue to grow into the printed framework and form an entirely new structure such as an ear.
Over time, the plastic biological mould will degrade and all that will be left is a new living organ.
Although this is not the first attempt to create biodegradable moulds for organ regeneration, it is the first successful attempt using 3D printing technology.
Group member, Anthony Atala from the Wake Forest Institute for Re-generative Medicine in North Carolina, US, comments on the future of the new technology: “With further development, this technology could potentially be used to print living tissue and organ structures for surgical implantation.”
