3d Bio-Printing

Lacy May

Introduction to the Sciences

April 19, 2016

3-D Bio-printing

     Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University were able to hack and refine a store bought 3-D printer to print soft tissue (Millsaps, 2015). They have used the new bio-printing method to print models of hearts, arteries, bones and brains out of biological material (Science Daily, 2015). The researchers hope to bio-print tissue necessary to repair a damaged heart. They are not printing functional human tissue at this time, but that is their goal (Feinberg, 2015). The team at Carnegie Mellon was able to cut the cost of bio-printing substantially by the changes made to the store bought 3-D printer. Most 3-D bio-printers cost over $100,000, they were able to use one that costs less than $1,000 (Science Daily, 2015).

     What interested me the most about this topic is the possibility of bio-printing a human heart, I have many family members with heart problems and the thought that one day they could bio-print the necessary tissue to repair a damaged heart is amazing. Since Carnegie Mellon University is only 45 minutes away from where I live, I have seen this topic covered by the news more often. Bio-printing is a major research project going on in the Pittsburgh Pennsylvania area.

     I completely support the research that they are doing in bio-printing soft tissue. Any advances that can be made to eventually save lives, is worth investing research time and money. There are not enough organ donors to save every person that needs a heart transplant, if they can bio-print the tissue or organs necessary to save someone, they have done something incredible for human kind. Research like this is life changing and has a great potential to save a lot of lives.

     The article mostly discussed the research paper done at Carnegie Mellon University it covered the process of how they were able to bio-print soft tissue. The research I found was very detailed and explained the steps necessary to get to this exciting point in their research.

     Sources and references are very important when reading about science. When you are given multiple sources and references about the topic, you can do further research to on the topic to compare the sources. Often you find articles with conflicting information, you want to make sure that you get the correct information.