Cell printing

[Andyrdj]

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19025474.300-print-me-a-heart-and-a-set-of-arteries.html

OK- more cause for cautious optimism. relevant to tissue growth generally

 

[PJmomrunner]

Amazing! Imagine how different medicine will be in a generation!

 

[Dustin]

Impressive. This techique appears to be very similar to rapid prototyping and lithografy in the silicon wafer industry. You can create any desired 3D shape by depositing layer upon layer to any accuracy you care to attain. I'd imagine this is the way to go in manufacturing organic objects. We could use slices of CT scans, for example, to get a layered template of an organ and then copy it through the technique explained in the article.

The sky isn't the limit anymore.

 

[Andyrdj]

also...

also...

...I was wondering if a minimally invasive technique might be possible to "print" new cells directly onto an organ - eg new muscle cells around the heart from a micro-nozzle.

A more precise method than just injecting stem cells and hoping they grow into new muscle

 

[PapaHappyStar]

cool! also the interesting thing is that the cells start beating in synchrony, some sort of non-linear phase locking mechanism.

 

[Andyrdj]

Some related advancements

Some related advancements

http://www.physorg.com/news65118076.html

This relates to the ability to study cellular structires in 3D. It's all good stuff.