Inline with the topic and in cased you missed it: here in The Netherlands a cranium (part of skull) was printed for a woman three months ago. She received a transplant and lived! It was just released last week. Magnificent to see 3d printing already being applied in healthcare so thoroughly

http://www.soliforum.com/topic/5993/3d- … mans-life/

AZERATE wrote:

I've been following that for a while. They already printed a functional liver (I think in Sweden), and their goal is to print a heart. While this is fine and dandy, what is even better is what some have predicted to be on the horizon: not printing A heart, but printing YOUR heart. A paper I read (sorry...don't have the link) suggests that through advances in bioprinting and the completion of mapping the human genome, they may be able to take a smaple of your DNA, refine a genetic flaw that caused a genetically produced disease/attack/etc, and transplant with either your younger heart, or one that is superior to your previous one. One great benefit of this is the predicably low rate of transplant rejection.
Have you checked out the biopen they unveiled? Still being tweaked, but they say it may be in hospitals by 2016!

Mmm! It'll be curious to see how this technology mixes into the predicted complete control we'll have over our genetics over the coming century.
Though I think that liver was printed at a Chinese University, not in Sweden.

You may be correct. I am nearly obsessed with advancements in science and technology (which brought me to buy a SD), but I'm more of a history and mythology fanatic!
With that said, I live more in the past, and have to research the current more than others! lol

I've been following that for a while. They already printed a functional liver (I think in Sweden), and their goal is to print a heart. While this is fine and dandy, what is even better is what some have predicted to be on the horizon: not printing A heart, but printing YOUR heart. A paper I read (sorry...don't have the link) suggests that through advances in bioprinting and the completion of mapping the human genome, they may be able to take a smaple of your DNA, refine a genetic flaw that caused a genetically produced disease/attack/etc, and transplant with either your younger heart, or one that is superior to your previous one. One great benefit of this is the predicably low rate of transplant rejection.
Have you checked out the biopen they unveiled? Still being tweaked, but they say it may be in hospitals by 2016!

Mmm! It'll be curious to see how this technology mixes into the predicted complete control we'll have over our genetics over the coming century.
Though I think that liver was printed at a Chinese University, not in Sweden.

Bioprinting, or the process of creating human tissues through 3D printers, is a highly contested area of technological innovation. Theoretically it could save the economy billions on a global scale, whilst boosting weak or war-torn countries' access to more affordable health care and provision, whether producing prosthetic limbs or highly customised fully-working human organs.

this will be interesting