Imagine a world in which an injured patient receives a new human organ without waiting for a donor. Imagine a 3-D copier that can print a bladder, lung, or heart. You needn’t dream up these marvels. Today’s scientists are engineering those very wonders and more.
Here’s how 3-D biotech printing works:
First, a designer uses a computer program to make a 3-D model of the object he wants to create. Then the program “slices” the computer model into thousands of layers. (Think of a potato cut into thin slices.) The 3-D printer scans every slice. It uses ink or other material to build the object one slice or layer at a time. The printer fuses the layers to form a solid 3-D object.
Scientists are experimenting with “ink” made of living cells. They have successfully printed strips of human tissue with this special ink.
But before scientists can bioprint working human organs, they need to print blood vessels. That has proven tricky. One scientist made ink that melted when it cooled. That ink was shaped into blood vessels. Scientists chilled the bioprinted tissue and removed the melted blood vessel ink. That left channels for actual blood to flow through.
Scientists hope that 3-D printers may one day print entire organs for use in transplants. For now, they are using bioprinted tissue for drug testing and research.
Some people have concerns about the ethics of bioprinting. They worry about safety and cost. They also worry that man is trying to play God. Others believe that God wants man to use and develop his God-given talents.
Whatever happens in this growing field of bioprinting, we can be sure that God is always in control. He alone “[declares] the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done.” (Isaiah 46:10)