Make mine steak!
Posted on 06/02/2022 7:30:18 PM PDT by American Number 181269513
A team of scientists at a company called 3DBio Therapeutics have successfully transplanted a 3D printed ear made from the patient's own cells, The New York Times reports.
It appears to be a first in the field of tissue engineering, according to experts, and could be the harbinger of a new era of regenerative medicine.
"It’s definitely a big deal," Carnegie Mellon biomedical engineering researcher Adam Feinberg, who was not involved in the project, told the NYT. "It shows this technology is not an 'if' anymore, but a ‘when.'"
The patient, a 20-year-old woman, was born with a small and malformed ear due to a rare congenital disorder called microtia.
In a clinical trial earlier this year, experts 3D printed a new ear, designed to perfectly match her other one, and transplanted it onto her head.
The ear will even continue to grow, the company says, generating new cartilage tissue.
According to the NYT, the trial could mark the first time a 3D printed implant made of living tissues was successfully transplanted onto a human patient.
The company used half a gram's worth of cells harvested from the patient and grew them into billions of cells using what it says is a proprietary technology. A special 3D printer then used "bio-ink" based on collagen to print the ear.
"It comes in as a biopsy from the patient, and it leaves a living ear," 3DBio CEO Daniel Cohen told the NYT.
Arturo Bonilla, the surgeon who performed the procedure, also came away impressed.
"As a physician who has treated thousands of children with microtia from across the country and around the world, I am inspired by what this technology may mean for microtia patients and their families," he said in a statement.
"This study will allow us to investigate the safety and aesthetic properties of this new procedure for ear reconstruction using the patient’s own cartilage cells," Bonilla added.
Despite having undergone federal regulator reviews, the company has remained tightlipped about technical details. And results have yet to be published because the clinical trial, which involves 11 patients, is still running its course.
3DBio Therapeutics is now hoping to apply the same technique to other body parts, including spinal discs, noses, and rotator cuffs.
Printing more complex body parts such as organs, however, presents a far greater challenge than the ear, which serves a purely cosmetic purpose.
3DBio Therapeutics is now hoping to apply the same technique to other body parts, including spinal discs, noses, and rotator cuffs.
Nice. Hopefully, they are successful with this as there are some parts I’d like to replace.
Can they print a brain for President Retard? 🤪
Implant not transplant.
Don’t get too excited “which serves a purely cosmetic purpose”.
Form over function. :)
They grew billions of cells, and then stopped...sounds like they cured cancer.
Yes. There are many with disfigurements who hope this is good news.
I’m always interested in this technology. The transplant community, hopefully someday will be able to grow organs for those who need them. I know it’s not there yet, but people WILL benefit greatly from it.
The pluses are huge- using the patient’s own stem cells reduces rejection, and
hopefully fetal stem cells won’t be needed.
Evander Holyfield please pick up the courtesy phone.
Make mine steak!
A Brave New World.
Just to throw a monkey wrench into the conversation:
I saw a symposium a year or so ago on organ printing. They use a donor organ, wash off all the cells, leaving a collagen scaffold, which is neutral to the immune system, then seed it with the patient’s stem cells. Time in a bioreactor and then it is implanted. Animals, so far, AFAIK.
“3DBio Therapeutics is now hoping to apply the same technique to other body parts, including spinal discs, noses, and rotator cuffs. Printing more complex body parts such as organs, however, presents a far greater challenge than the ear, which serves a purely cosmetic purpose.”
I’ll have the whole body transplant, please.
Maybe they can give the president a new brain.
If you could do this with nerve cells you could repair spinal injuries. Crippled people could walk again.
I saw a video- I can’t remember where now- maybe Curiosity Stream or YouTube, where they showed that procedure using a human heart. Like you say, it was nowhere near perfected, but really fascinating. Imagine taking an organ “off the shelf”, injecting it with the patient’s stem cells and implanting it.
What a boon for patients and the medical profession.
West World technology.
Now she can wear glasses.
Mike Tyson just called in an order.
This technique can also help burn patients. Long ago, my dad's friend was assaulted by several blacks who set him on fire. He lost the use of an arm when the flesh was fused; went through skin transplants from elsewhere on his body but never regained use of his arm. He would have me touch his chin and neck and then say I'm stroking his ass because that's where they took the skin for transplanting to his neck. He was such a kidder despite his injuries.
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