A few months ago our CTO, Turlif, spoke at the Renato Archer Research Center (CTI) in São Paulo, Brazil at a workshop aimed at showing the state-of-the-art and the complete cycle of the human organs bio-fabrication process utilizing three-dimensional printing. Besides the challenges and the enabling technologies on each bio-fabrication step, the narrow dependency of this area with information technology was also discussed. Check out his talk, part 1 and part 2, as well as some of the other speakers there, such as Evan Malone (co-creator of the Fab@Home and founder of NextFab) and Vladimir Mironov (one of the leading researchers in the areas of cardiovascular development, vascular biology, tissue engineering, and phenomics).

A recent article by Bonnie Berkowitz in the Washington Post discusses bioprinting and touches on its implications for organ replacement.

I occasionally get an uncomfortable feeling when reading news articles about 3D fabrication, particularly in the mainstream press. They can take on a simplistic tone that makes me think of a B movie sci-fi script or that young children are the target audience (“The machine looks like the offspring of an Erector Set and an ink jet printer. The “ink” feels like apple sauce and looks like icing”) but maybe I am imagining it and the writer was simply hungry when she wrote the piece. Or perhaps the concepts are just so large and potentially far-reaching that we are all struggling to find the right words to accurately corral and shape them to our understanding. I don’t know though, I think people are able to get more than we sometimes give them credit for, it just falls upon us to communicate the ideas well and in doing so perhaps giving shape to the concepts.

Despite my issues with the presentation, it is gratifying to see such an interesting field within 3D fabrication being discussed.

Researchers in bioprinting like Tony Atala, (Director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine) and Lawrence Bonassar, (Cornell University) are using a “pearly material” made up of human cells that resembles "icing" (hmmm...) to experiment with printing human organs and bones.

“The possibilities for this kind of technology are limitless” said Lawrence Bonassar. His lab has already printed vertebral tissue that has been successfully introduced in mice. “Everyone has a mother or brother or uncle, aunt, grandmother who needs a meniscus or a kidney or whatever, and they want it tomorrow ... The promise is exciting.”

The article goes on to say that there are many challenges ahead and this bioprinting technology is many years away from creating the more complex organs. Up to now, even the less complex body parts to fabricate such as skin and vertebral disks have not been put in human bodies yet. However, they are expected to be ready for human trials within two to five years.

“Scientists say the biggest technical challenge is not making the organ itself, but replicating its intricate internal network of blood vessels, which nourishes it and provides it with oxygen.”

Accordingly, it is believed that the best initial option is to create an intermediary environment that encourages the majority of the cells to grow on their own once the major support vessels within the organ have been fabricated.

“The cells, after all, have been functioning within the body already in some capacity, either as part of the tissue that is being replaced or as stem cells in fat or bone marrow. (Donor stem cells could be used, but ideally cells would come directly from the patient.)”

“The cells are actually the tissue engineers, so the people that do the work are just cheerleaders,” said Rocky Tuan, director of the Center for Cellular and Molecular Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh. “When we do tissue engineering, we are accelerating what the cells normally do. I tell people its assisted living, because we help the cells. We build all the houses and everything, and then we say, ‘Cells, come in and do your thing.’ ” If the cells do their thing correctly, the organ lives and grows just as the original once did.”

The technical difficulties are not the only hurdles. Keith Murphy, (co-founder of Organovo) believes that it would take less than ten years to make a kidney if the American government created a ‘human organ project’ and made it a goal to manufacture a human kidney but that would take a massive commitment of resources. And then there is the issue of clearing it with the Food and Drug Administration.

The article concludes looking at the possibility of fabricating an entire human being. Something it describes as science fiction.

“While a complex organ would be the holy grail for most tissue engineers, some like to look even farther ahead, straight into science fiction.”

“If one can bioprint functional human organ constructs, then bioprinting a whole human — or whatever will be the name for such a creature — is just a logical extension,” says Vladimir Mironov, a pioneer in the field.

We are hastily assured that not everyone feels that this is necessary and the more typical way of producing humans works pretty well. Okay.

Whatever the case, a couple of interesting points came up. One is the flexibility in producing what is desired and that fabrication is not locked to any specific location; human organs to go as it were. Regardless of the specific application, the portability and future customizability of production is starting to become evident. There can be no doubt that there will have to be huge shifts in how we deal with a manufacturing process that can undermine manufacturing monopolies and effect how we see personal ownership and trade. What changes will 3D printing cause in transport and the exchange of commodities. Will changes such as these release us from many of the more mundane aspects of daily life that we just accept as a given? “I don’t need to go to the Mall; I’ll just make it here”. Science fiction indeed.

What happens when we don’t have to travel, when we don’t have to line up for daily commodities… when we don’t have to burn vast quantities of fuel to transport those commodities over large distances? What happens to the commodities themselves when they lose monetary value based on rarity ( a rarity that might well have been created simply by limiting access to them)? I find myself thinking back to the music industry before you could share MP3s or produce your own music so easily. It could be argued that we have a more dynamic and varied music scene than we have had for a long time because such accessibility encouraged small, non-mainstream musicians to produce music in the “garage” and get it out there but I don’t know if the major record labels would say that. What happens when that occurs to an ever increasing number of objects? What happens to Wal-Mart? And by extension what on earth (literally) will we do with all the discarded junk when we grow bored of it?

Maybe we will become fat dissocialized lumps that need 3D printers to create our organs as they languish from loneliness and misuse in our decaying unexercised bodies…or maybe we will make super humans…who knows at this point?

As a final note on the article, I also found myself wondering why the writer chose to finish by assuring the reader that not everyone is considering fabricating whole humans and that the more traditional ways of reproduction are still pretty good. Why do that? It's probably my imagination but the future moral and ethical debates at a society wide level are going to be picked up as people realize that issues like the stem cell debate pale when discussing the possibility of producing whole humans. Imagine the letters to the editor when that sort of furore ensues? Will conservatives still be outraged if we don’t have to use the stem cells of a foetus to produce the real meat and gristle of the human form? Will debates regarding the existence of the soul intensify when we create an exact human form in a fabricator? Will such outrage be limited to conservatives only?

What happens to reproduction’s last mysteries when the human form is manufactured exactly as if from a human womb, simply, or rather not that simply ex vivo?

The next great step in additive 3D manufacturing is upon us. Bored with sticky molten plastics and metal powders that get everywhere? Hungry after a lonely day sitting at your 3D printer geeking out? Look no more; researchers at the University of Exeter have designed a printer that creates objects using chocolate instead of the more prosaic plastic or titanium powder.

In terms of technology there are, admittedly, no great paradigm shifting leaps occurring here… but who cares? It tastes good! Successive layers of chocolate are still being laid down as they would using resin, plastic or other, more permanent substances, the difference is that now you can eat it…or use it ingratiate yourself with a materialistic loved one on Valentine’s Day. In addition to the pleasure gained from circumventing the grasping artificiality of the Romance Industry’s fondest cash cow you get to customize your edible message and gain brownie (forgive the pun) points for “taking the time to make something special” for that unique someone.

Hugs and kisses (albeit cavity-ridden ones) all round! Hopefully enough to distract you from your burgeoning waistline, decaying molars and the scorching sugar high gained from sampling your creations all day.

And, ultimately, if your obsession with 3D manufacturing precludes you actually ever getting a date with the person of your dreams, your latest creation will provide edible solace as you sit alone surrounded by the busy hum of your next great, but probably misunderstood, project being manufactured.

Mmmm, chocolate.

Check out Printer Produces Personalized 3D Chocolate. (BBC online, July 5, 2011).

At Vienna University of Technology, they have developed a new 3D printer that is to date the smallest, lightest and cheapest 3D printer. The prototype of this new printer is "...no bigger than a carton of milk, it weighs 1.5 kilograms, and is just 1200 Euro..."

Worth noting is the resolution of this printer, which is a twentieth of a millimetre thick.

There has been a bit of a stir in our industry lately. On February 12, 2011, the world known international affairs publication, The Economist, released an entire issue on 3D printing. This is the first big cover story for 3D printing, and some would say that it is ushering in an era where 3D printing begins to go mainstream. Check out the entire article. It gives a nice history of 3D printing and also offers an opinion on the effects of the soon to come widespread adoption of 3D printing.

One of the articles to check out is The printed world: Three-dimensional printing from digital designs will transform manufacturing and allow more people to start making things.

Lexus is testing out some of its newly designed parts made from carbon fiber and plastic on the new car model LFA. The process they invented to make these parts is a large circular loom which effectively weaves the parts together.  Not only are these parts much lighter and stronger than its counterparts,  Lexus also claims that the volume of material is 50% less when using this new process.

Check out the video.

Yet another very interesting article on the problems in the CAD industry. Despite all the promise of tools to help change the way products are designed, what is released instead are improvements to UI, automated capabilities and specialized modules."Core modelling paradigms remain[ed] the same; which has led many to believe that the CAD market has reached a level of maturity or stagnation."

Hold tight everyone, we are hard at work to finally come through on some of these promises.  Stay tuned.

A funny representation of some of the issues of B-rep, that anyone can understand.  Thanks to Denis for the link.

Join Turlif and team for a talk on Digital Materialization in the UK at The International Conference on Additive Manufacturing - 7th - 8th July, 2010. They might just bring along some sneak peaks of what we have been up to.

Organovo Inc, a San Diego based company, is leading the way in regenerative medicine with its tissue printing technology. Currently they are getting ready to print artificial blood cells for transplants with a new machine developed together with Invetech, an engineering and automation firm in Melbourne, Australia. Some say in 20 years, this could be the standard for replacing tissue/organ systems.