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"SAN FRANCISCO - 3-D printing, used to construct everything from art to toys to spare parts for the space station, may one day produce human organs at a hospital near you. click image to enlarge A 3-D printed prosthetic nose and ear are displayed at an industry show in London in November. The technology may eventually help reduce organ shortages. Bloomberg News photo by Chris Ratcliffe Select images available for purchase in the Maine Today Photo Store The 20-year-old technology uses liquid materials that become hard as they print out three-dimensional objects in layers, based on a digital model. Current medical uses are in dentistry, for hard-material crowns, caps and bridges, as well as prosthetics. Last year, a 3-D printer was used to create a structure from moldable polymer that replaced more than 75 percent of a patient's skull. Now, Organovo Holdings Inc. is using 3-D printers to create living tissue that may one day look and act like a human liver, able to cleanse the body of toxins. Drugmakers and cosmetic companies already plan to use 3-D printed human tissue to test new products. Eventually, the technology may help reduce organ shortages and cut transplant rejections as patients receive new organs constructed from their own cells. "3-D printing is like a new tool set," said Organovo Chief Executive Officer Keith Murphy. "You can make a living tissue you can grow outside the body. That's the core of our technology. How can you be smart about doing that?" Organovo already is preparing to sell strips of liver tissue to drugmakers this year to be used to test toxicity of potential treatments, Murphy said in a telephone interview. The San Diego-based company's five- and 10-year goals are first to use a patient's own cells to print tissue strips that can be used to patch failing organs, and finally to be able to create entire new organs. The first 3-D printer was produced in 1992. Since then, a variety of materials have been used as the t

Bio-printing human organs and tissue: Get ready for the great 3D printer debate"

"3D Printing Aims to Deliver Organs on Demand" 3D Organ Printing

Ears, bones and other body parts have been spit out of 3D printers in the lab. Here's a look at what organs can be created with 3D printing and are ready for prime time.

"Such a futuristic dream remains far from reality, but university labs and private companies have already taken the first careful steps by using 3D-printing technology to build tiny chunks of organs." This website provides information on how far we currently are in the process of construction new organs from 3D printers. It talks about what bodily materials have already been made by the printers and how they were made. For example the pieces of skin that have already been successfully used on patients. Then it tells you about who came up with this discovery and when. We can use this source as a reference on how far we have come with 3D printing. It is reliable because it is on an official science website and all of the information is cited throughout the article.

"Dying patients could someday receive a 3D-printed organ made from their own cells rather than wait on long lists for the short supply of organ transplants. Such a futuristic dream remains far from reality, but university labs and private companies have already taken the first careful steps by using 3D-printing technology to build tiny chunks of organs. Regenerative medicine has already implanted lab-grown skin, tracheas and bladders into patients - body parts grown slowly through a combination of artificial scaffolds and living human cells. By comparison, 3D-printing technology offers both greater speed and computer-guided precision in printing living cells layer by layer to make replacement skin, body parts and perhaps eventually organs such as hearts, livers and kidneys."

"The next step: 3D printing the human body" This page has great videos!

Overview of organ printing and what is expected in the future

"Approximately 18 people die every day waiting for an organ transplant. But that may change someday sooner than you think -- thanks to 3D printing." This website explains how a 3D printer would work and what progress is currently being made with them. It is predicted that we will be able to print a functioning liver by next year! This will be a reliable resource because it can help us understand how 3D printing will work and who will be affected by it. Not only does it talk about who would use the organs, but also how the companies that produced them would be affected. We know this is a reliable website because the author is cited, along with the references he used to get his information.