Would you believe it if someone said to you that a fully functioning kidney and other human organs could be created using a 3d printer?
This is a soon to be reality and is no longer science fiction it is a real possibility in the very near future.
Printed Kidney
Three-dimensional printing is already being used in the health care sector; where they are using it to create prosthetic limbs, dental fixtures, and custom designed hearing aids and now it’s used to create more complex structures like human tissue.
A San Diego based firm called Organovo and focus on regenerative medicine. They do this by using a bio printer that is a specially designed 3D printer capable of printing human tissue for medical research and the tissue can also be used in regenerative therapies.
Three dimensional printing is traditionally known as additive manufacturing, the process involves the completion of a solid object created from the data of its original digital model. The object is fully completed by a number of successive layers of material like metal, plastic, glass or ceramic each layer fused on top of one another. Some of the biggest companies in the world like General Electric, Boeing and Honeywell use 3D printing technology when manufacturing product parts.
This printing technology is at a stage of expansion, going in numerous directions. Amazingly, it’s now being used in ways that were never imagined or could have been expected in the past. From the tiniest components inside hearing aids, to the larger parts of a Boeing 747, 3D printing has helped create these parts and specific design requirements. It is re-shaping the future of medicine; its continued use in medical research is giving us a higher speed to progress.
If you’d like to learn more about 3D Printing and 3D scanning technology, visit our archived blogs.