By Peter Lavelle
Friday 26 February 14:26 GMT
Product development firm Invetech will soon dispatch the world’s first production model organ printer to biotechnology company Organovo. The bio-printer will facilitate clinical trials that should let simple tissues – including muscle, skin and blood vessels – be employed in surgery within 5 years. Of course, the machine promises a ready alternative to patients languishing on donor lists.
Organovo commissioned Invetech to build the bio-printers last May, for the purpose of eventual commercial sale. Now nearing delivery, the printers – costing $200,000 each – will become available to research institutions worldwide.
According to Organovo CEO Keith Murphy, the bio-printers enable several varieties of organ and tissue to be replicated. He said: "Researchers can place liver cells on a preformed scaffold, support kidney cells with a co-printed scaffold, or form adjacent layers of epithelial and stromal soft tissue that grow into a mature tooth. Ultimately the idea would be for surgeons to have tissue on demand for various uses.”
Initially though, the tissues produced with the printers will be less sophisticated. The boon of distributing the machines is that it catalyses research – potentially prompting the quicker development of more complex printing. Ultimately, printed organs need not even resemble the originals to complete the same functions.
The bio-printers work similarly to inkjet printers – but with a third dimension. Instead of ink droplets, a cell polymer is deposited through the printer head in the desire shape. A ‘scaffold’ of water-soluble material provides the vacuum in complex shapes – for example, the void through which blood flows in a blood vessel. This soluble hydrogel emerges via a second printer head.
Invetech’s bioprinters fit inside the standard bio-safety cabinet for sterile use. They should begin shipping to medical research establishments worldwide this year and next.
Sources
Phillip Torrone, ‘Printing Body Hearts: Making A Bit Of Me @ The Economist,’ MakeZine.com, 23 February 2010.
Alex, ‘Bio-Printer Will (One Day) Print Organs For Transplant,’ Neatorama.com, 25 February 2010.
Anonymous, ‘Making A Bit Of Me,’ Economist.com, 18 February 2010.
Anonymous, ‘Invetech Delivers Organovo’s First Commercial 3D Bio-Printer For Manufacturing Human Organs And Tissue,’ Organovo.com, 1 December 2009.
Friday 26 February 14:26 GMT
Product development firm Invetech will soon dispatch the world’s first production model organ printer to biotechnology company Organovo. The bio-printer will facilitate clinical trials that should let simple tissues – including muscle, skin and blood vessels – be employed in surgery within 5 years. Of course, the machine promises a ready alternative to patients languishing on donor lists.
Organovo commissioned Invetech to build the bio-printers last May, for the purpose of eventual commercial sale. Now nearing delivery, the printers – costing $200,000 each – will become available to research institutions worldwide.
According to Organovo CEO Keith Murphy, the bio-printers enable several varieties of organ and tissue to be replicated. He said: "Researchers can place liver cells on a preformed scaffold, support kidney cells with a co-printed scaffold, or form adjacent layers of epithelial and stromal soft tissue that grow into a mature tooth. Ultimately the idea would be for surgeons to have tissue on demand for various uses.”
Initially though, the tissues produced with the printers will be less sophisticated. The boon of distributing the machines is that it catalyses research – potentially prompting the quicker development of more complex printing. Ultimately, printed organs need not even resemble the originals to complete the same functions.
The bio-printers work similarly to inkjet printers – but with a third dimension. Instead of ink droplets, a cell polymer is deposited through the printer head in the desire shape. A ‘scaffold’ of water-soluble material provides the vacuum in complex shapes – for example, the void through which blood flows in a blood vessel. This soluble hydrogel emerges via a second printer head.
Invetech’s bioprinters fit inside the standard bio-safety cabinet for sterile use. They should begin shipping to medical research establishments worldwide this year and next.
Sources
Phillip Torrone, ‘Printing Body Hearts: Making A Bit Of Me @ The Economist,’ MakeZine.com, 23 February 2010.
Alex, ‘Bio-Printer Will (One Day) Print Organs For Transplant,’ Neatorama.com, 25 February 2010.
Anonymous, ‘Making A Bit Of Me,’ Economist.com, 18 February 2010.
Anonymous, ‘Invetech Delivers Organovo’s First Commercial 3D Bio-Printer For Manufacturing Human Organs And Tissue,’ Organovo.com, 1 December 2009.
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