July 1, 2015 | By Simon
While we’ve seen how 3D printing has dramatically revolutionized the medical industry by allowing surgeons to print replicas of organs and their surrounding areas in order to better understand them before an actual surgical procedure, the next evolutionary step is to look into 3D printing the organs themselves to replace a patient’s existing failing organ.
Although there have been many world-class researchers who have looked into the possibilities of 3D printed organs, available technologies haven’t quite provided what would be needed in order to start using the technology to produce organs that are accepted by the human body. Thanks to some recent efforts from some dedicated individuals however, it’s looking like we now may be seeing usable organs sooner rather than later.
Among others who have been dedicated towards transforming the way we develop and transplant organs is Martine Rothblatt, who was inspired to fight for the cause after her own daughter developed pulmonary arterial hypertension - a rare condition in which the arteries in the lungs and the heart become constricted, making it hard for blood to flow through them - and needed a lung transplant to survive.
Rothblatt, who had previously created the satellite radio service Sirius XM and the satellite navigation company GeoStar has a history of leadership when it comes to problem solving; she is also a transgender woman and the second highest paid female CEO in the United States.
After receiving news that without a lung transplant, her daughter had less than five years to live, Rothblatt was inspired to leverage her influence and establish the PPH Cure Foundation, a nonprofit foundation that was geared towards finding cures for pulmonary arterial hypertension. Soon after, in an effort to make treatments easier for those condition, she went on to establish pharmaceutical company called United Therapeutics Inc., which focuses on designing drugs and machinery for aiding those with pulmonary arterial hypertension.
“United Therapeutics Corporation is a biotechnology company focused on the development and commercialization of unique products to address the unmet medical needs of patients with chronic and life-threatening conditions,” says the company’s website.
“As a group, we are relentless in our pursuit of 'medicines for life' and continue our research into treatments for pulmonary arterial hypertension, cancer, and some of the world’s most complicated viral illnesses.”
According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, about 21 people die in the US every day because there aren’t enough organs for transplant. According to the department, the problem isn’t that there aren’t enough donors, it’s because 80% of the lungs are not in usable condition.
Through a partnership with the biomedical engineering company PERFUSIX, Rothblatt has turned the company’s efforts towards developing machines that are able to fix and preserve some of the discarded lungs so that they will be ready for use in transplants. The machines are capable of acting as toxin-free artificial bodies that help cultivate lungs that are able to be used by a recipient in need.
While the company has been able to successfully use the method to preserve otherwise discarded lungs, Rothblatt’s ultimate goal is to turn the company’s focus towards harvesting organs using 3D printing technologies.
In essence, the process would involve printing a scaffold of an organ out of materials that are compatible with the human body before isolating the cells from the sick patient and converting the desired tissue type into usable cells using the scaffolding. Not only is this method among the easiest ways to create an organ from scratch, but the use of the patient’s own cells decreases the chances that their own body would reject it after being implanted.
Although it’s still very early to say, it’s clear that renegades such as Rothblatt - who has already dominated the satellite media industry - are among those who are likely to tear down the walls of what’s possible as we head into the near future of additive manufacturing technologies.
Posted in 3D Printing Applications
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Typical, when a rich person (or their family) gets sick, we have a medical breakthrough and progress. -- It's super awesome progress and all (and kudos to Rothblatt, it might be more than others with similar resources would have done...) -- but I just wish we had the society where this kind of breakthrough would happen routinely, instead of waiting for some important person to be affected by it first...
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