Video: Artificial Organs Made With A Printer, Grown From Scratch

Best of What's New winner Anthony Atala explains how to whip up a useable heart on an old inkjet machine

By Stuart Fox Posted 01.22.2010 at 10:45 am 10 Comments

Artificially Grown Heart Valve via PBS

In 2006, Anthony Atala conducted a routine organ transplant. Well, the procedure was ordinary, but the organ being transplanted was anything but. The organ wasn't donated by another person, but grown in the lab by Atala and his colleagues. This feat landed Atala on our Best Of What's New 2006 list. Now, in a new TED talk, Atala goes into detail about his work, explaining how they grow the organs, and what he's working on now.

The TED audience is notoriously easy, ooh-ing and aah-ing at every speaker. But Atala is the real deal. Over the last decade, he has taken a technology that would have been considered magic in an earlier time and made it a reality. Hell, printing organs from scratch? Part of me is still convinced there's wizardry afoot at his Wake Forest University institute.

But don't take my word for it, check out Atala's TED talk in the video below. If you aren't awed by the boundary-pushing medicine Atala's developed, you simply don't have a heart. Luckily, he can whip one right up for you.

[TED]

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10 Comments

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car04fsu

01/22/10 at 11:33 am

this...is...amazing. Its irritating to think where we would be had we not taken so long to allow stem cell research. Nonetheless, what a testament to human ingenuity!

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Bagpipes100

01/22/10 at 1:26 pm

What hindered stem cell research, was certain scientist demanding to have fetal stem cells, instead of using adult stem cells which have been shown time and time again to be more useful than just creating new ways to cause cancer.

Just like they show in the video, they are harvesting cells from the patient to grow the new organ.

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PopSci-is-cool

01/22/10 at 2:17 pm

Thank you bagpipes100, exactly what I was going to say. How many times did he say "using the patients own cells"? At 14:40 he said "use cells from that organ" because they already know what they are to become, no need to program a stem cell - embryonic or adult.

Notice also at 16:45 he said the main goal is to "do no harm"... which in many peoples mind includes doing no harm to an unborn person, regardless of its stage of development.

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PopSci-is-cool

01/22/10 at 2:38 pm

Didn't mean to sound anti-progress in earlier post... I also agree with car04fsu, this tech is amazing!! I believe it holds incredible promise!!! I'd rather have my own (insert organ name here) "regrown" than receive a donor one and be on anti rejection drugs forever.

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invictus09

01/22/10 at 3:59 pm

I'd be surprised to hear of any scientist who wanted to create human embryos for the sole purpose of destroying them for stem cell research. What they were asking for, was to use embryos which were already slated for destruction (from fertility clinics) in order to advance the science. We do now have the ability to create stem cells from adult tissue and that's great... but car04fsu is right... we would've been farther along had such restrictions never been placed.

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ford2go

01/23/10 at 3:12 am

First -- this is just an amazing feat.

As for the stem cells, it didn't happen, and we don't know what might have been. Maybe the restriction forced the exploration of the adult cells earlier, and thus was beneficial. I'm sure that the restriction did, in fact, result in a lot of new areas of exploration.

Also, the fact that the current setup is different does not make it correct. These are murky moral issues.

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SVB

01/23/10 at 6:23 am

This is not a joke! The religion of Islam and its offspring Sharia Law are taking modern Europe as we know it. Muslims want Islam to take over Europe and North America and force women to cover up or be punished! Please educate yourself on this dire matter

@ford2go "Also, the fact that the current setup is different does not make it correct. These are murky moral issues."

What are you talking about man? If you create a stem cell from someone's own body and not from an embryo then how is that wrong? IT ISN'T WRONG!!! Nor is it morally murky. If you take cells from my body and turn them into stem cells then i dont have a problem at all and neither should you!!!!

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Dane619

01/23/10 at 4:34 pm

can i get a new liver please.....my toner is running low.

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tmedlen

04/10/10 at 2:02 pm

Nice video, though I wish I had a dollar for every time he says "actually"

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peter_tod

06/30/10 at 12:02 am

I would suggest that is magic not from the mystic kind, but from a human kind. What an amazing man to achieve what I would have thought to be impossible. It certainly gives hope for mankind yet on a serious note I wonder if this Doctor was devoting his time to preventative and human rights for all mankind, then we would have less need for such intervention.

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