Earlier this year a group at Harvard solved one of the most difficult challenges involved in growing artificial human organs. The team used a 3-D printer to make human tissue that includes rudimentary blood vessels. Emboldened by that success, the researchers have started an ambitious project to make fully functioning printed kidneys.
Speaking at MIT Technology Review’s EmTech conference, Jennifer Lewis, professor of biologically inspired engineering at Harvard, said the ultimate goal—creating functioning human organs—is a “really long moon shot.” But she added that her group has made significant progress by fabricating rudimentary versions of structures in kidneys called nephrons. These artificial nephrons will allow drug companies to quickly screen potential medications, and they should help scientists understand kidneys at a more detailed level.
To produce tissues with blood vessels, Lewis’s group has invented novel 3-D printing inks and nozzles that allow it to precisely print multiple materials. For example, it can print various types of cells and materials that help connect cells. One of these inks allowed the group to make tunnels inside the tissues, which the researchers lined with blood vessel cells (see “Artificial Organs May Finally Get a Blood Supply”). Lewis said her group is using the same approach to making the tubes inside kidneys that help filter blood.
Don’t settle for half the story.
Get paywall-free access to technology news for the here and now.
