Bioengineered Organs: A New Technology on the Rise that could Transform the Medical Field and Save Lives
The need for replacement organs is immense and unfortunately the need for organ donors is far greater than the number of people who have the ability to donate, therefore new approaches are needed to engineer artificial organs that are capable of repairing, supplementing, or replacing long-term organ function.
As of 2021, in the United States alone there are 105,800 men, women, and children on the national organ transplant waiting list and on average 17 people die each day waiting for an organ transplant. Currently three biotech companies are paving the way for bioengineered organs. This lifesaving technology has the potential to one day eradicate the need for organ donors and the unnecessary deaths of thousands of people on the transplant list who will never get the organ(s) that they need to survive. These companies are eGenesis, Makana Therapeutics, and United Therapeutics. Their research is extensive and focuses primarily on 3-D printing, tissue engineering, biomaterials, cellular mechanics, to create these artificial organs that have the ability to support or replace diseased and failing organs.
Researchers continue to thoroughly study healthy human tissue and organs and how tissue repairs itself and functions properly within our body. With this information and the advancement in technology scientists can create tailor made organs using tissue engineering, cell biology, and additive and micro-manufacturing to create 3-D replacement tissues to treat human disease. Carnegie Mellon researchers are developing advanced, 3-D “bioprinters” that are able to print soft biomaterials and cells within three-dimensional tissue constructs or even whole organs.
I definitely see this technology advancing in the future and becoming widely used across the world. From my research we can expect this sophisticated and life saving technology to be out of clinical trials and widely available to the public within the next 10–15 years.
With how we’ve seen technology progress over the years I have no doubt that creating artificial organs would be within the realm of possibility in the near future. I even envision it being possible to create organs that may function and heal better than authentic organs.
Recently I have become more and more interested in the medical field. Even though I study communications, my ideal career would be a position such as a communications specialist or work in health communication in general.
This new technology will without a doubt have a very positive effect on society as a whole. It’s going to save thousands of lives and give people an opportunity to live their lives without the fear of their body failing them. Though a negative impact I can see this having on society, specifically in the United States where universal health care does not exist, I can see it becoming elitist and how the lower class may have a harder time being able to afford a medical procedure as advanced as this causing unnecessary deaths within the lower class. I still believe this emerging technology has more pros than cons and can make a huge positive impact on the lives of many across the world.
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