WRC 1013/1023: Freshman Composition: Exploring Critical Issues

"Regenerative medicine and tissue engineering have seen unprecedented growth in the past decade, driving the field of artificial tissue models towards a revolution in future medicine. Major progress has been achieved through the development of innovative biomanufacturing strategies to pattern and assemble cells and extracellular matrix (ECM) in three-dimensions (3D) to create functional tissue constructs. Bioprinting has emerged as a promising 3D biomanufacturing technology, enabling precise control over spatial and temporal distribution of cells and ECM."

"3D biomaterial printing has emerged as a potentially revolutionary technology, promising to transform both research and medical therapeutics. Although there has been recent progress in the field, on-demand fabrication of functional and transplantable tissues and organs is still a distant reality. To advance to this point, there are two major technical challenges that must be overcome. The first is expanding upon the limited variety of available 3D printable biomaterials (biomaterial inks), which currently do not adequately represent the physical, chemical, and biological complexity and diversity of tissues and organs within the human body. The second challenge is developing and implementing comprehensive biomaterial ink and printed structure characterization combined with in vitro and in vivo tissue- and organ-specific evaluation."

"3D printing, or additive manufacturing, has now reached the consumer market. This process creates three-dimensional objects under computer control using successive layers of material. First described in the 1980s, this technology has established commercial and research applications using materials such as metal, plastic, or ceramic. And now the availability of 3D printers, which create small objects by extruding thermoplastic filaments, has prompted renewed interest among researchers."

"For several years, 3D printing has been used in medicine to create customized prosthetics and fabricate tissue and organs. How far are we from the generation of a fully functioning whole organ, such as a kidney, liver or heart? Also this issue, we review the Living Donor Protection Act introduced to Congress earlier this year."

"3D printing is a technique of fabricating physical models from a 3D volumetric digital image. The image is sliced and printed using a specific material into thin layers, and successive layering of the material produces a 3D model. It has already been used for printing surgical models for preoperative planning and in constructing personalized prostheses for patients. The ultimate goal is to achieve the development of functional human organs and tissues, to overcome limitations of organ transplantation created by the lack of organ donors and life-long immunosuppression."

"Injury or damage to tissue and organs is a major health problem, resulting in about half of the world’s annual healthcare expenditure every year. Advances in the fields of stem cells (SCs) and biomaterials processing have provided a tremendous leap for researchers to manipulate the dynamics between these two, and obtain a skin substitute that can completely heal the wounded areas. Although wound healing needs a coordinated interplay between cells, extracellular proteins and growth factors, the most important players in this process are the endogenous SCs, which activate the repair cascade by recruiting cells from different sites."