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  • Organ printer

    We've been off of scoli research for a bit so I figured I'd stick this one into the mix. I knew things like this were being thought of, but didn't know it had already been done.

    Scanners are used to take a 3-D image of a kidney that needs replacing, then a tissue sample about half the size of postage stamp is used to seed the computerized process, Atala explained.

    The organ "printer" then works layer-by-layer to build a replacement kidney replicating the patient's tissue.
    Anyone ever seen or heard of this before? I'm actually in a bit of awe at this. Especially since someone has already received one of these. I keep checking to see if it's from the Onion of something.

  • #2
    That's amazing! Thank goodness for the good researchers out there! That would be an absolute godsend to those needing kidneys. I see that this was done ten years ago...are they just waiting for longterm results to do more widespread application of this?

    Here's a link to an article regarding it for anyone who wants to read it:

    http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-03-...ted-stage.html

    I have read articles about printing new skin for third degree burns using an inkjet printer device. Third degree burns have such deep wounds that apparently need different layer depths for the skin cells to be sprayed. That's why that other skin spraying device only worked on burns up to second degree.

    http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/...6382QM20100409

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    • #3
      Originally posted by Ballet Mom View Post
      Here's a link to an article regarding it for anyone who wants to read it:

      http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-03-...ted-stage.html
      Yep... forgot to add the link.


      Originally posted by Ballet Mom View Post
      That's amazing! Thank goodness for the good researchers out there! That would be an absolute godsend to those needing kidneys. I see that this was done ten years ago...are they just waiting for longterm results to do more widespread application of this?
      I'm not sure. This is why I'm so confused this hasn't been a bigger deal and makes me wonder if this is a fluke or some weird joke. Like cold-fusion or cars that run on water. Although TED talks are usually really good. Making a custom organ seems to be a pretty huge deal to me. I just can't figure out the 'catch' other than it's extremely experimental.

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      • #4
        To start with, only simple tissues, such as skin, muscle and short stretches of blood vessels, will be made, says Keith Murphy, Organovo’s chief executive, and these will be for research purposes. Mr Murphy says, however, that the company expects that within five years, once clinical trials are complete, the printers will produce blood vessels for use as grafts in bypass surgery. With more research it should be possible to produce bigger, more complex body parts. Because the machines have the ability to make branched tubes, the technology could, for example, be used to create the networks of blood vessels needed to sustain larger printed organs, like kidneys, livers and hearts.
        http://www.economist.com/node/155436...ry_id=15543683

        But the other article said someone had already received a kidney.

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        • #5
          Here's a great link with pictures and videos even!! What an amazing field is all I can say.

          http://spectregroup.wordpress.com/20...ement-kidneys/


          Great video from the above link here. Look at 15:49 for a good chuckle. :-D

          http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=7SfRgg9botI
          Last edited by Ballet Mom; 03-04-2011, 08:19 PM.

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          • #6
            Maybe we can get a discount if we pool together and get some new spines printed up? I thought ink cartridges were overpriced, but I am sure this takes the cake!

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            • #7
              Wow...just wow!! Here's a video of the actual TED talk that occurred this month. Absolutely awesome. It turns out the kid that came on stage actually got an engineered bladder, not a kidney. They actually printed a kidney on stage during the talk, but the kid had a bladder implanted ten years ago. They state these kidneys, etc. are prototypes and for scientific study and won't be available for years...which is good. First, do no harm. How truly exciting for the future! (Talk about people deserving of a Nobel prize!)

              http://www.ted.com/talks/anthony_ata...an_kidney.html
              Last edited by Ballet Mom; 03-08-2011, 01:44 PM.

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              • #8
                Here's another clip from Sixty Minutes from a year ago, with a bit more information and bio-engineered ears!

                http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqGrN...layer_embedded


                Dr. Atala is a rockstar now. I see this new study is in The Lancet. I hope this is somehow not all just overhyped for some reason:



                "The latest involves five Mexican boys between 10 and 14 who suffered terrible damage to their urinary tracts from auto accidents. They were unable to urinate normally.

                "When they first came in, they had a leg bag that drains urine, and they have to carry this bag everywhere they go," says Dr. Anthony Atala of Wake Forest University in North Carolina. "It's uncomfortable and painful. So these children were mostly sitting or bed-bound."

                Atala and his colleagues, including doctors at Metropolitan Autonomous University in Mexico City, figured out a way to grow a new urethra, the tube that empties urine from the bladder, for the children.

                The first thing they did was remove a small patch of each boy's bladder.

                "The piece of tissue we take is very small -– less than half the size of a postage stamp," Atala says. The tissue contains two types of cells –- muscle cells and endothelial cells, which form the lining of the urethra and other hollow tubes in the body, such as blood vessels.

                The researchers multiplied these cells in the lab until there were 100 million of them. Then they used the cells to "seed" a cylinder made out of biodegradable material. A week or so later, the cells covered the cylinder, creating a tube of tissue about as long as a deck of cards, with a diameter a little bigger than a soda straw.

                The researchers stitched these made-to-order tissue tubes into the gaps in the boys' urinary systems. Eventually, the biodegradable "scaffolding" melts away.

                That was as long as six years ago. Today, in every case, the boys' re-engineered urinary tracts are functioning normally, the researchers say.

                The unusually long follow-up is perhaps the most important aspect of the new report, which appears online in the British journal The Lancet."

                http://www.wbez.org/story/children03...y-damage-83432
                Last edited by Ballet Mom; 03-08-2011, 03:32 PM.

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by Ballet Mom View Post

                  That was as long as six years ago. Today, in every case, the boys' re-engineered urinary tracts are functioning normally, the researchers say.
                  Just amazing.

                  Thanks for finding all of that stuff. I want to find some time to look through it all and see the talks. I'm glad it's not just some weird elaborate scam/hoax thing. Have you seen anything on chron's, colitis or colon cancer?

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by skevimc View Post
                    Have you seen anything on chron's, colitis or colon cancer?
                    No I haven't seen anything in association with regenerative medicine, other than intestine is listed as being studied by Dr. Atala's institute:

                    "The Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine is working to grow tissues and organs and develop healing cell therapies for more than 30 different areas of the body, from bladder and trachea to cartilage and heart. "

                    http://www.wfubmc.edu/Research/WFIRM...ssue-Types.htm


                    Also from the site:

                    "Reports in the media that Dr. Anthony Atala printed a real kidney at the TED conference in Long Beach, Calif., are completely inaccurate. At the conference, Dr. Atala used a new type of technology to print a kidney-shaped mold and explained how one day – many years from now – the technology might be used to print actual organs..."

                    "This technology has the ability to print cells and biocompatible materials at the same time. The hope is that one day it will be used to print tissues and organs. This demonstration, in which a kidney-shaped mold is printed, shows how the technology works:

                    Cells and biomaterials are inserted in the printer cartridges.
                    A CT scan from a patient would be used to create a "map" to guide the printer.
                    The printer "prints" biocompatible materials that form the kidney shape.
                    While this mold has the shape of a kidney, it is not functional because it has none of the vessels or internal structures."

                    http://www.wfubmc.edu/Research/WFIRM...Inaccurate.htm

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                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Ballet Mom View Post
                      Also from the site:

                      "Reports in the media that Dr. Anthony Atala printed a real kidney at the TED conference in Long Beach, Calif., are completely inaccurate.

                      Ok. That actually makes a bit more sense.

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