3-D Printing Moves to Human Organs Source: Hotz, Robert. "Printing Evolves: An Inkjet for Living Tissue," Wall Street Journal, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443816804578002101200151098.html, posted 9/18/2012. Need an artery for bypass surgery or custom cartilage for that wom-out knee? Then just hit "print on your 3-D printer. One of the most exciting innovations in OM, 3-D printers have become indispensable fod doing business. The large industrial systems, ranging from $5,000 to $1 million can print in different colors of plastic and employ other materials such as metal, glass, and ceramics. Software makers are harnessing this power, making much better tools for manipulating objects. The market for 3-D printers, about $1.7 billion, will reach $3.7 billion by 2015. One of the most exciting innovations in OM, 3-D printers have become indispensable for doing business. The large industrial systems, ranging from $5,000 to $1 million can print in different colors of plastic and employ other materials such as metal, glass, and ceramics. Software makers are hamessing this power, making much better tools for manipulating objects. The market for 3-D printers, about $1.7 billion, will reach $3.7 billion by 2015. In laboratories across the U.S., biomedical engineers are working on ways to print living human tissue, with the goal of producing personalized body parts and implants on demand. These tissue-engineering experiments represent the next step in a process known as computerized adaptive manufacturing, in which industrial designers tum out custom prototypes and finished parts using inexpensive 3-D computer printers. Instead of extruding plastic, metal or ceramics, these medical printers squirt an ink of living cells called shorthand bioprinting. The machines can build up tissue structures, layer by layer, Into all sorts of 3-D shapes, such as tubes suitable for blood vessels, contoured cartilage for joints, or patches of skin and muscle for living Band-Aids. At Comell, researchers are printing heart valves, Knee cartilage and bone implants. At Wake Forest, bioengineers are printing kidney cells and are working on a portable unit to print healing tissue directly into burns or wounds. At the University of Missouri, researchers have printed viable blood vessels and sheets of beating heart muscle. Biomedical engineers hope to print out tailored tissues suitable for surgery and entire organs that could be used in transplants, to eliminate long delays for patients awaiting suitable donor organs and the risk their bodies may reject the tissue. Bespoke Innovations is using 3-D printers to produce functioning artificial limbs for a much lower cost than what has been previously available. With digital modeling, a prosthetic limb can be customized to suit the recipient's body and needs Click to select vour