Soon it may be possible to replace entire organs thanks to the work of a team at The Wyss Institute at Harvard. Tissues can be produced through 3D bioprinting, and it will act as human tissue. According to Wyss faculty member Jennifer A. Lewis, they are a step closer to being able to perform tissue repairs and regeneration.
The team was able to demonstrate that the tissue could last for over six weeks, and the thickness of the tissue has increased tenfold. At a demonstration, they printed tissue that was 1cm thick and contained human bone marrow stem cells complete with connective tissue. Growth factors were added and after a month, cells became bone cells.
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The programme funding the research is the Civil Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation and according to Zhijian Pei one of the directors, this research will allow wider us of 3D tissues and will eventually allow the full regeneration of tissue.
Living tissue cultures can be created and the chip involved can be changed to allow various sizes of tissue shapes to be produced. There is a great deal of praise for the team and the work they are carrying out, and it is believed that problems that were holding back tissue engineering can be overcome.
There have been a number of people working on the scheme along with Lewis, and this includes a few other Wyss staff including Kimberley Holman, who is a research associate and postdoctoral fellow Mark Skylar-Scott.