A subsidiary of the Free University of Brussels and Ghent University has started producing organic-ink, which can be used to print organs and human tissue using a 3D printer. The company could become an important link in efforts to find a solution for the shortage of donor organs.
BIO INX, located in Zwijnaarde, is a new spin-off from the Ghent University and the Flemish Free University of Brussels (VUB), which is committed to developing organic-ink to produce organs and human 'spare parts' using 3D printers. "There is a huge shortage of donor organs and this could possibly be solved by printing organs based on human cells, stem cells," says Dr Jasper Van Hoorick, CEO of BIO INX.
"3D printing allows the creation of complex structures like organs and human tissue. But before that can be done in practice, standardised materials are needed to print these cells."
Alternative to animal testing
Anyone needing an organ transplant in future might get an organ made using a 3D printer. "At the moment, no real organs are being printed" Van Hoorick says, "but tissues that serve for organ printing research are already being printed in labs. Other tissues are used in drugs or cosmetics testing as an alternative to animal testing."
"Imagine a tissue is a wall and your cells are the bricks, we make the mortar. Our organic ink makes the cells printable and allows them to grow afterwards."
Printed auricle
The road to printing a heart or liver is still a long one, Van Hoorick says. "These are very complex organs. Simple tissues start first. Not long ago, there was a trial in the United States in which a dozen people were given a 3D-printed auricle made from their own human cells. To leave the trial phase, a legal framework is also needed, but we are already moving in the right direction."