An Organovo Photo Essay
Wired is running a photo essay on organ-printing startup company Organovo. Generous Methuselah Foundation donors provided the funds for the Foundation to invest in the growth of Organovo, an investment that is a part of the Foundation's long-term strategy to support and nurture important research:
"Right now we’re really good at printing blood vessels," says Ben Shepherd, senior research scientist at regenerative-medicine company Organovo. "We printed 10 this week. We’re still learning how to best condition them to be good, strong blood vessels."Most organs in the body are filled with veins, so the ability to print vascular tissue is a critical building block for complete organs. The printed veins are about to start testing in animal trials, and eventually go through human clinical trials. If all goes well, in a few years you may be able to replace a vein that has deteriorated (due to frequent injections of chemo treatment, for example) with custom-printed tissue grown from your own cells.
The photos are good, but the article mistakenly suggests that hundreds of millions of dollars will be needed to develop the organ printing system. In fact, Organovo's devices are already on sale to research groups - the large expenditures of the future will be spread amongst researchers who are working on moving from printing blood vessels to printing entire complex human organs.