London, June 5 (IANS) There’s good news for patients who need an organ transplant with scientists developing a new machine that can weave human organs with fragments of tissues.
Researchers at a US-based regenerative medicine firm have already developed a prototype machine capable of growing arteries. They claim the doctors could one day be able to ‘print’ new organs for transplant.
They said the new method, based on 3D laser printing technology, could be used to create body parts. Instead of combining layers of plastic and metal, the ‘bioprinter’ puts living tissue together, The Telegraph reported.
Two laser-based printing heads are used to place living cells onto thin sheets of gel with microscopic precision. Multiple layers are then laid on top of each other in a specially designed mould, or ‘scaffold’ and the cells begin to fuse together.
‘Ultimately the idea would be for surgeons to have tissue on demand for various uses,’ said Keith Murphy, chief executive of the California-based company Organovo.
‘The best way to do that is get a number of bioprinters into the hands of researchers and give them the ability to make three dimensional tissues on demand.’
