Can We Create 3D Printed Organs That Produce Electricity?

The 3D bio-printing is taking the medical technology to a whole new trend with the ability to 3D print human organs that can be transplant to replace damage or failure organs. The trend that can save lives and end the suffering of millions of people around the world. Check 3D Printing a Working Human Heart from Fat Cells.

3D printing bio organs depend on using live cells as the base material to produce human organs. In this technology, the plastic filament is replaced with living tissues which are printed layer b layer creating blood vessels and vascular network.

Dr. Ibrahim Ozbolt, assistant professor of mechanical and industrial engineering and co-director of the University of Iowa’s Advanced Manufacturing Technology Group, is working to develop a 3D bio-printed organ that can generate electricity inside the human body. While most of the 3D printed technologies focus on replacing the failed organs. The project is focusing on creating a brand new organ that support the human body.

Dr. Ibrahim Ozbolat describes the idea as: “For complicated organs — for example, if the heart fails — then you need a pacemaker. The pacemaker runs with batteries, and when the battery needs to be replaced, surgery is needed,” he said. So instead of this procedure, scientists could create “an organ that is going to be part of the human body and generate electricity that can run the heart.”

The new technology taking the 3D bio-printing outside the box and try to provide solutions to patients with other health issues such as diabetes. “One of the most promising research activities is bio-printing a glucose-sensitive pancreatic organ that can be grown in a lab and transplanted anywhere inside the body to regulate the glucose level of blood,” says Ozbolat.

The video below from University of Iowa Biomanufacturing Laboratory shows how the new technology works and how the new tissues are built using the 3D printing technology.