Is 3-D Printing Body Parts the next big thing?

The media is filled with stories of amazing new applications in modern technology. From speech recognition, to electronic medical records, this industry is advancing at a rapid pace. Perhaps one of the most predominate types of machinery available on the market today is the 3D printer: an additive manufacturing process that essentially lays down layers of material to build a part from scratch. 3D printing has come a long way in its relatively short lifetime. An instrument once made to create complex plastic parts now has the ability to bio-print body parts.

Christopher Barnatt, a renowned futurist and author of the book “25 Things You Need to Know About the Future,” predicted that bio-printing body parts was going to revolutionize medicine.  The advent of 3D Printing technology makes that more possible than ever.

Plastics are used in the majority of 3D printers available on the market today.  However, more sophisticated equipment can produce parts in metal, ceramics, and even human cells.  These cells are generated from the individual, so there is a perfect genetic match which eliminates the probability of the body rejecting an implanted organ. 

Researchers at top medical schools and institutes across the country are leading the development of 3D printed body parts.  Surgeon Anthony Atala, director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, has 3D printed bladders and implanted them in human patients.  However, this is still an experimental procedure with no data on the long-term success of the new organ functioning.  The bladder is a less complex organ than say a heart or lungs.  More research is needed to incorporate the many functions of these organs with the 3D Printing process itself. 

Scientists at MIT and Harvard are advancing the development of 3D Printed body parts by mimicking DNA, RNA and natural systems in digital manufacturing design and controls.  Digital manufacturing uses computers to tell a 3D Printer where to deposit material, and is key to the fabrication process.  By using models from nature, new materials can be developed that have more advanced capabilities.  One of the most powerful concepts is self-assembly – creating new building blocks that can put themselves together quickly and accurately. 

However, Dr. Neil Gershenfeld, Director of the Center for Bits and Atoms says that the Star Trek Replicator that will make anything at the push of a button is at least 20 years down the road.  Today’s 3D Printers are in their infancy.  Home models, while affordable, often require the skill to tinker and coax them to actually 3D print properly.  Production models are more user friendly, but prices can be in the $100,000 range for a high resolution machine.

More complex applications of 3D Printing such as bio-printing body parts, will require another level of research and development.  All medical procedures and devices, require the stringent regulations of the US Food and Drug Administration.  Clinical trials take time, especially when projections on long-terms effects need to be measured.

While the science fiction of 3D printing body parts is coming closer to reality, it will still be awhile before it is commonplace.