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Need new skin? A new kidney? Just print one
Bioprinting organs.
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We speak to Dr. Anthony Atala from Wake Forest University. He and his team have been working on a method of printing new skin for burn victims. It uses technology very similar to what you might find on your old HP printer. In fact, he's even using the same cartridges. He uses up all the ink, cleans it out, sterilizes it, then loads it up with cells and gel and prints skin on people.
The goal, and he thinks it's a realistic one, is to print entire organs this way. So if you need a kidney, you won't need to hunt all over the world for a perfect donor. Just print one. We've talked about 3D printing on the show before. It's a technology that's actually been around for a while. But organs? That's new.
What struck us about talking to Dr. Atala, however, was how unfazed he seemed to be by what is clearly a pretty amazing idea. Not that he doesn't care; he obviously cares a lot to work so hard on something like this. It just struck us as remarkable that someone can get used to an idea such as this. We called up our pal comedian Paul F. Tompkins to provide some answers.
Also in this program, George Lucas is releasing all the "Star Wars" movies in 3-D but John refuses to believe Episodes 1 through 3 exist.
I was fascinated by the amazing possible medical breakthrough using printers to make skin and organs. WOW - having worked in Burn Centers this could be truly life saving. I was disappointed by two parts of the story though - (one) - how close to actual use is this technology was not mentioned and - (two) - that the commentators spent almost as much time talking about how gross this was as they did discussing the story. Attracting top students into science is a real challenge for the United States and if research on the human body is considered gross by those in technology and finance how will this trend change?
