TOW #21: 3-D printed hearts: The shape of medicine to come

     The face of medicine has constantly been reshaped and reformed to create unbelievable technologies to help the average human. 50 years ago, scientists were still curious to what a cell was and how it worked. Today, we are now looking at regenerating cells through a 3-D printer, possibly to create transplant organs instead of using donors. The 3-D printer is considerably new, but it is being applied to a variety of fields. In my own school robotics team, a 3-D printer is used to construct parts for the robot. But in the real world, this new technology is becoming a reality to build organs. Dr. Anthony Atala, the director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, talks about the benefits and difficulties of bioprinting to increase awareness about this new cutting-edge technology in medicine.
    Atala uses specific examples to present his ideas about the benefits and difficulties of bioprinting. There are obvious benefits like no more transplant waiting lists or donor matches, with bioprinting a new organ can be printed within a few days for a patient. The printer can do things that a human would not be able to do by hand, such as choosing a specific cell type to use and then placing the different cells exactly where they need to be. The field of bioprinting is extremely applicable and beneficial to the world of medicine. On the other hand, there are still many kinks needed to be smoothed out. Although they have come a far way with this new technology, scientists are still unable to figure out how to successfully keep oxygen in the printed organs when transplanting it into a body. Atala uses specific ideas to fix this problem such as printing small channels into the structures and filling the channels with blood vessels, or print oxygen-producing materials. Although bioprinting is a current developing technology, Dr. Atala does not believe the printing of complex organs will be a reality until another decade. The structure of Atala's article helps the reader stay organized with all of his presented ideas. He begins with the background of bioprinting and the recent breakthroughs, then goes on to talk about the difficulties, and closes with his predictions on the future.
    I believe Atala does a great job of creating awareness of bioprinting with his arrangement and specific examples. This new field of bioprinting really exemplifies the incredible shape of medicine to come.