Functional human body parts built using 3D-bioprinting technique

The research team, from the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, NC, say their novel technology - named the Integrated Tissue and Organ Printing (ITOP) system - and the resulting creations mark "an important advance" in growing replacement tissue and organs for patient transplantation.

Senior study author Dr. Anthony Atala, director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM), and colleagues explain how they created the 3D-printed body parts in the journal Nature Biotechnology.

In recent years, 3D printing has emerged as a promising strategy for the growth of complex tissues and organs that can replicate those of the human body.

However, Dr. Atala and colleagues note that current 3D printers are unable to produce human tissues and organs that are strong enough to be transplanted in the body or that can survive following transplantation.

The team believes that their ITOP technology, however, could help overcome such problems.