Posted on 12/26/2013 4:25:17 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
QUICK PASS THE TEQUILA!
I’ll believe it when I see it. I’ve made good money on ONVO in the past (I bought it when it was a $2/shr stock). But to print a large hormone producing living tissue with capillaries to boot seems a stretch to me.
I call BS. This printed liver will never go into a human body ... at least not in 2014.
The hard part will be keeping the capillaries open. This is a common problem with any organ transplant, or reattaching things like fingers or ears, you get massive clotting in the capillaries and tissue death sets in.
livers are able to regenerate
liver donors have them grow back
Fifth Element
Nice...
You probably have to be of a certain age to get that one, just as if you’d called it “Dice Clay’s Computer.”
“But to print a large hormone producing living tissue with capillaries to boot seems a stretch to me.”
It’s a total “fabrication” - pun intended...
Here’s a very detailed look at the company and what it is doing.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/1848361-a-very-detailed-look-at-organovo
nice
“PASS THE TEQUILA!”
The obvious companion invention would be a 3D printer that prints tequila.
I’ll drink to that!
If successful, it will not only solve the lack of cadaver organs but allow transplants from personal tissue (assuming not a problem like Hepatitis or HIV) so that transplants can take place in the post-antibiotic era.
Can they print up a chianti and some fava beans too?
Often leeches are used to drain excess blood from such sites to prevent large clots. Yes, leeches.
I’d think that a printing process could in principle create a perfectly orderly grid of capillaries and arterioles/venules, ready to hook right up. It might even be set up to match up with whatever the patient already has, if we have the luxury of doing the printing real time. No leeches needed.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.