Regenerative Medicine Technology by 3-D Printing

Throughout this semester, Courtney and I have learned how 3D Printing is revolutionizing the medical field not only due to its association with modern medicine, but is possibilities to break down the strict regulations of what medicine is claim to say that it cannot do. Many times in the medical field, we have seen many doctors who either play it safe by going by protocol or break the rules in order to save a patient’s life. Although 3D Printing has many possibilities in becoming part of the medical field in a helpful way, it has also cause some issues with protocol in regards to ethics. However, the idea of giving a patient a new life or a reason to live again, is the beauty that 3D Printing claims to be. The regenerative and healing process can be difficult for anyone, and although 3D Printing does in no way make it any easier, it still gives the patient a new perspective on life after something tragic. This new introduction of 3D Printing from only two years ago, now being more notice by not only doctors, but individuals who are interested in the medical field. Such as myself and Courtney, we had no idea or concept of what 3D Printing in the medical field was until we did our research. Learning more about this fairly new concept in the medical field is just another game changer in modern medical science, which puts no restrictions on what is seen as impossible in medicine.

Coming close to the end of the project, 3D Printing has become a major insight and reference when helping doctors in the medical field. 3D Printing has seen its effects on revolutionizing health care in the medicine field, creating endless possibilities in the years to come.

Moscow, Russia has pushed the boundaries even farther in order for the contents of the printed structures to become completely absorbed, within the body’s natural tissue. The scientist pioneer Fyodor Senatov who discover that the body’s tissue will be able to absorb 3D component materials, within skull implants. This means that the bone implant for skull injuries will be absorbed, and replace with its natural tissue. This is very new to medicine in regards to 3D printing because before this, many scientists and doctors were using 3D printed replicas as a ‘solution’. Although it has been proficiently, there was yet to have one degradable enough to mesh into the human’s body area of injury, and still be part of the entire body structure.

So, remember when you were a kid and you first saw your first horror film and kept thinking, “Is this real?”. Well, this sounds like something straight out of a page from a Stephen King book. Apparently, 3-D printers could soon be bringing human skin into the concept. This means that the 3-D printer will be able to print actual human skin through the usage of live stem cells in order to make human skin. However, I can see this being useful in regards to skin graphs or skin transplant; but, it is still quite disturbing. Scientists and doctors look for this in the year of 2025 to see the first prototype. What do you think about this concept? How does it drastically change the outlook from body organs to human skin?

Picture this: You are coming back home at night and come across a dark ally, with one street light lamp flickering. There are many possibilities running through your mind of all the negative implications of this such as: crime, violence, or selling of illegal drugs? However, this article title may have caught our attention being that your ‘new drug dealer’ will be a 3D Printer. However, it will not be this way due to the fact that there will be an analogy and blue print in order for patients and doctors to make the drugs. Nonetheless, I am curious of what everyone thinks about the possible ethnic debates and how this will be deemed acceptable to the FDA, but not to the pharmaceutical field. What are your thoughts on this concept of being able to make your own medicine with a 3D printer to your own leisure?

Scientists are now discovering new implications for 3D printing, by printing a organ-on-a chip and that organ being a heart. The chip will have sensors that will become a breakthrough with the medical field, due to its indication of diseases within the tissues. Nonetheless, this also cuts back on the controversy of using animals as experiments, by replacing that with sensors in chips in order to conduct experiments in the medical field.

The FDA recently approved the first 3-D printed drug used under the name Spritam, which is a prescription pill for adults with certain types of seizures caused by epilepsy. The reason why this is important is because it opens many implications for the pharmaceutical industry, being the consumption of drugs, the tectonic shift between patient and doctor in the use of algorithms for patients to print themselves, and the introduction of bespoke medication and drugs specifically customize for patients.

Professor Lee Cronin of Glasgow University questioned the limitations of medicine by learning about the concepts of 3D printing, and turned that concept into his own by creating a ‘ chemputer’. This chemputer is able to allow doctors and even patients to print their own pharmaceuticals at home. However, there is also a controversial issue being the fact that since anyone would be able to print pharmaceuticals at their own leisure, this also allows concern of distribution of medicine illegally. Although Cronin’s prototype can lead to a large scale in the medical and personal use, there will also be controversial ethics and concerns in regards to the FDA, and the safety of patients due to distribution.

The controversies in regards to 3D Printing are all ethical, due to the concerns of crossing the line in to how much is too much when it comes to the safety of individuals. Professor Dodds explores three ethical controversies regarding the safety and legal limitations of 3D printing: Justice and access, safe treatments, and the appropriateness of human enhancement. All thee issues not only relate to the concern of the safety of the individual, but whether the boundaries within the non-limitations of the medicine field, are actually crossed with this futuristic concept of medicine. Although 3D Printing can save lives in the future due to replicas of organs and tissues, it can also be a hazardous concept for the future of medicine.

The new innovative approach of bio printing is caused to raise ethic concerns due to the issues of complexity of ‘enhanced’ organs, involving non human cells. Right now, surgeons are using human cells and tissues to make direct replicas, but if the procedure calls for non-human cells, the medical field will not be prepared. Furthermore, who will control the quality of the organs and the ability to produce the synthetic organs. This medical research is not only showing promise to save lives, but this is only on a one level basis through the use of human cells. Without the advantage of human cells, the medical field has to be prepared for using non human cells in order to go into more complex surgeries.

NASA and three other companies have decided to take 3D medical printing to the next level, space. They brought a printing with adult human tissue into space and were successfully able to print in zero-gravity. This breakthrough is great for astronauts and space engineers because now they are able to print in case of a medical emergency. This could lead to life-saving procedures that they would otherwise not be able to perform because of lack of resources.

This inspirational article details the disability of a young girl who lost the ability to lift her arms. When she was 18 months old, she visited a research hospital the uses a device called WREX which is a robotic exoskeleton. This enhancement made it possible for her to move with more ease and less pain. The WREX was only possible because of 3D printing. The 3D printed device was life changing for this little girl. The hospital says the 3D printing this device lets them help more people because of the fast and efficient way a 3D printer works. Her success story is just one of the many that comes from 3D medical printing.

Mick Ebeling is the co-founder of Not Impossible Labs and The Ebeling Group, who took a trip to Sudan in October 2013, to do the impossible in constructing a 3D printed arm for a young boy. Ebeling’s idea came from learning about Dr. Tom Catena, who treated multiple children who were injured from the Sudanese government bombing raids. This lead to Ebeling learning about 12 year old Daniel from Sudan, who was also affected from the bombing raids and decided to help Daniel when he learned that Daniel no longer wanted to live, because of his condition. This led to Ebeling learning about 3D printing from a carpenter turned 3D printer guru, and then meeting Daniel in person to have his arm fit for the 3D printed arm. Daniel and Ebeling’s story is inspirational and beautiful, to see how medical technology may not be able to reach multiple in need; but if one person can be helped then that means all the difference. A lot of times, people believe that just helping one person will not make any difference in anyone’s life because it is not multiple; nonetheless, Daniel’s story proves that the impossible can be reached from miles away.

Ebeling, Mick. “How a 3D Printed Arm Gave Hope to Boy Maimed in Bomb Blast”. CNN. 19 March 2014. Web. 9 Oct. 2016.

This article by Susan Young puts the questionable ethics of 3D Printing in the medical field on the forefront when the reconstruction of regenerative tissues, such used in tissue engineering becomes an issue when there is a lack of body components. This specific concern was for the lack of blood vessels, although the team already created a patch of tissue containing biological structures interwoven with blood vessel like components. The complexity of this specific replication was because of the lack of blood vessels, in order to build a more stronger structure of the vessel wall. This presents the question from the article discussing the ethic debates with 3D printing because how are these vessels (lack of) being produced and qualified? Because they are not direct sources of human skin cells or bio components, they have to use a method with an ‘ink’ that will construct the wall. This seems to be at fault because no longer are the regenerative vessels being taken from live cells in order to build the wall, but it has to be completely man-made in order to continue the process.

This article focuses on two areas within the new technical advances of 3D Printing in the medical field: 1) Ease and customization for the patient; 2) Enhanced part performance and fusion for bone structure. The implant process for a 3D bone structure implements multiple steps starting from the CAT scan to the sterilization of the finish product. The process of using metal alloys due to the level of complexity within the recreation, allows for better performance value; however, financial and economically can be difficult standpoint. The process of 3D printing is still high into the future in consideration with risks along the way, and in order for this idea to grow into a versatile reality, there needs to be be more hands on experience on multiple professional levels.