By Ryan Deal ’16

For years, it has taken hands-on experiments in laboratories for scientists to recreate blood vessels, human urine and skin tissue. The idea of producing fully-formed organs appeared to be a pipe dream. That was until the emergence of 3D-printers, which have given hope to scientists that printing organs can be possible.

For many, the evolution of printing organs cannot happen quickly enough. As the baby-boomer generation grows older and weaker, there are fewer healthy organs to be transplanted. According to organdonor.gov, 18 people die each day waiting for a healthy transplant, a process that many doctors have deemed a “major health crisis.”

To reduce this number, scientists have turned to 3D-printers, which have been able to print bones and prosthetics, benefiting large quantities of people already. However, the 3-D printing of organs could save millions. There are obstacles, though, as scientists have cited the biological organ material as the main hurdle in the path of achieving the full printing of organs. “[Printing organ tissue] isn’t like 3-D printing plastic or metal. Plastic doesn’t die if you leave it sitting on an open-air shelf at room temperature for too long,” said Mike Titsch, editor-in-chief of 3D Printer World, told CNN.

The process of creating these organs, referred to as “bioprinting,” begins with the harvesting of human cells from biopsies and stem cells. Then, after allowing the human cells to “mix” and multiply in a petri dish, scientists feed the mixture into the printer, which is designed to arrange and format the cells into a 3D figure. While these steps have been mastered by researchers, the implantation poses the largest problem, as the body will often reject its new organ.

Among the many companies to lead the initiative for printed organs is Organovo, a California-based biotechnology firm. Organovo recently created 3D-printed liver tissue, a monumental step in the process of creating full organs. The printed tissue, which Organovo has begun selling to laboratories, grants scientists a way to further expand their research. “This gives researchers the kind of tool that they just haven’t had in the past. They can’t do the kind of experiments on a person that they can do with this tissue in a lab setting,” said Michael Renard, executive vice president at Organovo, in an article with CNN.

There is plenty to look forward to in regards to printing organs. Just last year, a 2-year old girl born without a trachea was given a recreated one, based largely out of her own stem cells. While there is still a long way to go before printing organs becomes a common practice in medicine, it has certainly advanced rapidly within the past years.