3D printing a new face, or liver, isn't that far off
Sixty years from now, we'll look back on today's 3D-printed tissue and organ technology and think it's as primitive as the iron lung seems to us now.
Six decades out, replacing a liver or a kidney will likely be a routine procedure that involves harvesting some patients cells, growing them and then printing them across artificial scaffolding.
Dr. Anthony Atala, director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, spoke at the Inside 3D Printing Conference here about where the technology is today, and what hurdles it still must overcome. The biggest hurdle is being able to 3D print supportive vascular structure so that tissue can receive the oxygen critical to its survival once it's implanted into a patient.
