Building body parts with 3D printing

While industry is assessing the potential of advanced manufacturing techniques, the medical sector is already using them, making items precisely tailored to a patient’s body. Dental implants and most hearing-aid earpieces are made by additive-layer manufacturing, while bone prostheses are built and adapted using advanced techniques.

But additive manufacturing is on the verge of breaking into a more startling area. Using the techniques of 3D printing, doctors may soon be able to produce soft-tissue implants such as blood vessels. And following on from that could be the ability to build a whole organ - such as a liver or kidney - complete with all its blood vessels. Additive manufacturing could make the transplant list a thing of the past.

The first ’3D bio-printer’ for making human tissue and organs became available at the end of last year. Produced for a San Diego biotechnology company, Organovo, by Australian automation specialist Invetech, the machine is being evaluated by research institutions studying regenerative medicine - the technique of growing organs using cultures of a patient’s own cells.