Scientist turns to ink-jet printer for a new heart

October 21st, 2008

Japan'sToyama University professor Makoto Nakamura displays inkjet printer-like experimental machine to produce human organs at his laboratory in Toyama city, central Japan, in August. The technology is the same as that of the the simple inkjet printer found in homes and offices, but Nakamura is on a mission to see if it can also produce human organs.

The technology is the same as that of the simple inkjet printer found in homes and offices, but Japanese scientist Makoto Nakamura is on a mission to see if it can also produce human organs.

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• deatopmg - Oct 21, 2008
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  WHat a money maker this will turn out to be!
  Will each cell turn on/off internal processes automatically based on type and surrounding environment to become part of the whole organ?? I have no doubt that this will work, eventually.
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• MVV - Oct 21, 2008
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  why stop at organs , then? You download a scan of your favorite supermodel , or even design one at your leisure , and turn the printer on....
  
  Seriously , this makes little sense for complex 3D organs , but i could see it working for tissues like skin.
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• h0dges - Oct 21, 2008
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  This is nuts! I like nuts :)
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• Mercury_01 - Oct 21, 2008
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  Yeah, but the cartridges will cost you an arm and a leg!
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• googleplex - Oct 21, 2008
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  This will work and it is the future. Wake Forrest Uni are doing similar work. They have already created bladders for patients. It will be extended to more complex organs. Currently the problem with the heart is obtaining a source of cells. No one has conculusively found heart stem cells in an adult subject yet.
  The photo shows no sterile field unlike the Wake Forrest machines. It makes me think this guy is behind with the technology.
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• DGBEACH - Oct 21, 2008
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  It could probably create the freshest and most delicious steaks anyone has ever tasted though!! :)
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• thales - Oct 21, 2008
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  Currently the problem with the heart is obtaining a source of cells. No one has conculusively found heart stem cells in an adult subject yet.

  
  
  I thought the idea was that stem cells are general - there aren't "heart" stem cells.
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• Valentiinro - Oct 21, 2008
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  Some stem cells can not turn into heart tissue, some stem cells can. What he probably meant by heart stem cell was a stem cell capable of becoming heart tissue.
  Cardiovascular muscle is a bit different from the rest of your body's tissue.
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• El_Machinae - Oct 22, 2008
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  How is this story different from similar stories in 2007?
  http://www.scienc...3208.htm
  
  Those stories also had videos available, with visible and beating proto-hearts.
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• Ulg - Oct 23, 2008
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  Heart cells beating after going through the process of bio printing is not the same as printing a heart that was beating- it just proves that heart muscle cells will start to align and flex. One of the key parts of this article is the ability to make multi-walled tubes, blood vessel creation is a major roadblock in organ fabrication. There has been recent video around the web of a "recycled" heart that beats recently.
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• googleplex - Oct 24, 2008
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  Currently the problem with the heart is obtaining a source of cells. No one has conculusively found heart stem cells in an adult subject yet.

  
  
  I thought the idea was that stem cells are general - there aren't "heart" stem cells.

  
  
  I was refering to stem cells found in the heart. Our bodies have many specialised stem cells already but no one has found a heart stem cell. But they expect to.
  You are refering to the omnipotent stem cells found in embryos.
  
  
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