We have seen words brought to life by the writers. They use brain, ink and printers. What about making lives using brain, ink and printers. Here is the biological cousin of 3D printing, ‘3D Bio Printing’
3DBio Printing
In the 21st century, 3D bioprinting was born when researchers discovered that the nozzles of inkjet printers could spray out living cells without damaging them. 3D Bio Printing works in a similar way to 3D Printing. A Digital model becomes a physical 3D object layer by layer. The difference is in the ink used and the nurturing. The ink used is known as ‘Bio Inks’ which is made up of cells and biocompatible scaffolds. The entire process can be divided into three major phases.
Pre Bio Printing
Pre Bio Printing involves creating the digital model. The technologies used are Computed Tomography(C. T) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (M. R. I) scans.
Bio Printing
This is the actual process where bio-ink is placed in a printer cartridge and deposition takes place based on the digital model.
Post Bio Printing
Post Bio Printing is the mechanical and chemical stimulation of printed parts so as to create a stable structure for the biological material. The printed structures are placed into a culture incubator which creates the environment of the human body. The end product is a printed structure turned tissue.
The Future of Bio Printing
- Imagine you need an immediate organ transplantation. Standing in a waiting list of hundreds of thousands, it will take time to get a donor. What about printing the organ you need? Using 3D Bio Printing, it is possible. Cell taken from you will be developed and reprogrammed to be the cell of the required tissue which is later printed and nurtured to an organ which is ready to transplant.
- 90% of drugs show promises while testing in animals but fails to work in humans because of the complex structured tissue. A 3D Bioprinted tissue will give much better result and cuts the entire expenditure.
- Diagnosis and treatments can be made more precise and fast as we are able to study and do experiments on printed tissues.
- By 2050 1 billion land animals will be required to supply us with our animal-based needs such as meat, milk, leather etc. Using 3D bioprinting, the laboratories can give supply to all these needs. We have already made ‘meat burgers’ with bio-printed meat.
3D bioprinting can really be the rebirth of current medical practices. It will definitely change our thinking about ageing and the way we treat diseases. So far we were able to make cartilage, blood vessels, the tissue of the heart, lungs and kidney. We are on the verge of making 3D printed Human Heart and Lungs. Somewhere in the future, we can expect a ‘3D printed Homosapien’ .
-Aashiq Alex
Reference:
https://www.discovery.com/science/doctors-and-scientists-3d-print-living-organs
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