Printing organs?In space?
Just about 13 years ago Adarsh Iyengar (a fellow TKS student) was born. He had an issue with his intestine and was in urgent need of an organ donation. Thankfully he was able to receive the organ that he needed and survived. Adarsh is now a young Innovate student here at TKS in cohort 6 and is accomplishing great things. He still has immense potential. Unfortunately not everyone is able to find a donor. There is an increasing scarcity for organs and it is lethal for many. In this article let’s breakdown how printing organs in space could be the solution.
General Overview of the article:
- What is the problem?/Why should you care
- Printing organs on Earth (seminal research)
- Using space to create better organs (new idea)
- Conclusion and personal thoughts
What is the problem?/Why should you care?
Here are the facts (for the US):
- 105,800 the number of people on the waiting list at the moment.
- 40,000+ transplants performed in 2021.
- 17 dead/day due to a lack of an organ transplant!
That is the bone-chilling data. With this data the statistical analysis is pretty easy anybody can do it 105,800–40,000 = 65,800. That is the amount of surgeries that need to be performed but that aren’t. Not only is there a lack of surgeries, this lack is lethal for 17 people every single day. Why? Why is this happening on such a large scale?
Researchers have found that people are unwilling to donate organs. Some simply do not like talking about death, others distrust the medical system. Of course in our free world we can not force them to donate that would be unethical and is a topic for another article. Another issue is that in organ transplantation there is the inherent risk of the patient’s body will reject the donation. So what can tech do to solve this deficiency in the supply of organs ? (spoiler alert: bioprinting)
Printing organs (seminal research):
There are many different ways of printing organs. Indeed the wikepedia page cites 6 different methods. For the intents and purposes of this article we will talk about extrusion bioprinting (explanation provided later). This method of printing organs is very similar to conventional 3D printing. Both methods use additive sytems. This means that they apply thin layers of a liquid material on to the previous layer of hardened substance. By progressively adding the layers they are able to create a 3D model through very thin slices of the model. However there is still a major difference. The so called ink. Normal 3D printers tend to use plastics or metals but these bioprinters have to use bioink.
Bioink: is any natural or synthetic polymer selected for its biocompatible components and favorable rheological properties. These characteristics temporarily or permanently support living cells to facilitate their adhesion, proliferation and differentiation during maturation. -Cellink
In short it is the material with which bioprinters print. For the more mathematical minds: Bioink = material compatible with cells that can support the cells + cells
Even though the method sounds a little inelegant if done properly it seems great.
Accomplishments of bioprinting on earth
In 1988 bioprinting was first demonstrated. The researcher had modified an HP inkjet printer to deposit cells. This demonstration led to the first form of bioprinting ever: Inkjet printing. In 1999 the first artificial organ was created with scaffolding by Dr. Anthony Atala at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine. The scientists at Wake Forest proceded by implanting an artificial bladder into a patient who showed no signs of complications. In later years scientists have tried to develop more complicated organs like the liver and the heart. In 2019 a major breakthrough shook the world of bioprinting. The researchers at Tel Aviv University printed a small human heart with the vascular characteristics and complexities of an actual heart.
“This is the first time anyone anywhere has successfully engineered and printed an entire heart replete with cells, blood vessels, ventricles and chambers.”-Prof. Tal Dvir of TAU’s School of Molecular Cell Biology and Biotechnology,
These breaktroughs are very promising. Indeed the field is in rapid growth and was already valued at 1.7billion USD in 2021. Unfortunately Earth presents its fair share of constraints.
Limitations of Bioprinting on Earth:
On earth when printing tissue the cells require a support material a scaffolding of some sorts or else they collapse under their own weight. This scaffold inhibits the formation of more intricate details in the organ (i.e. vascular system and lymph node pathway). Companies have tried using crosslinking polymers to control the tissue growth but these agents have proven to be toxic to the cells. On the other hand when trying to print with soft, easily flowing biomaterials to enable higher resolution in the organ the organ collapses under its own weight hence the need for the scaffold. However with the microgravity in space this is no longer a concern. This is why experiments are being conducted in the ISS (International Space Station).
Using space to create better organs (new idea) →The solution
I mentioned before that in this article extrusion bioprinting was of the talking point of this article. That is because in space at the moment there are two 3D bioprinters one using magnetic fields developed in partnership with Moscow’s 3D Bioprinting Solutions, and the BioFabrication Facility developed by Techshot and nScrypt (focus of this article).
Bio Fabrication Facility (BFF): Our new BFF
The BioFabrication Facility (BFF) was created by Techshot and nScrypt to aid in the plan of one day printing whole human organs in space.
“Assembling a human lung or other organ is still years away, but it is no longer science fiction, BFF is the roadmap for getting there. And this BFF team knows how to follow that map.”-Ken Church, nScrypt CEO
The process/protocol:
The process is relatively simple:
- A rocket transports bioinks as part of its payload
- The ISS crew inserts these into the the BFF
- A Techshot team on Earth remotely uploads the print files to the machine
- Astronauts insert a cell culturing cassette into the machine
- From the ground again the team starts and monitors the process
- The BFF prints cells inside the casette
- Once the printing has ended the flight crew seals the culture vessel inside the cassette
- They then put the cassette in a different Techshot machine (i.e.Advanced Space Experiment Processor or ADSEP) that allows these cells to “incubate” → become cohesive on a cellular level
- The cells stay in the ADSEP for about 60 days before they are ready to be shipped back to Earth.
How does the printing work differently?
As I alluded to before the printer works in an extrusive manner. This is exactly like any 3D printer on Earth just with bioink. Wheras on Earth gravity poses a problem in space that is no longer the case. Indeed there is no need for a scaffolding anymore as the cells can support their own weight thanks to the microgravity. This eliminates the need for toxic agents detrimental to the cells. In the end the result is a better organ. This is especially important as no one wants a low quality organ in their body. Can you imagine buying a “cheap” car only for it to breakdown after a couple miles. You would be annoyed because you lost time and money. With organs however the risk is very literally your own life.
Conclusion and personal thoughts:
First of all a quick recap
3D Bioprinting is a technological solution to organ scarcity around the world. Not only would it be able to save lives it can also extend the lifespan and more importantly the healthspan of humans. 3D Bioprinting consists of printing out a 3 dimensional organ with a combination of cells from the patient and hydrogel →bioink. Thus the organ is a perfect match for the patient as it is created form his or her own cells. This ties in to the new trend in medicine towards personalized treatments specific to one person as each person is unique as opposed to the current “one size fits all” model. By printing the organs in space the quality of the product is greatly improved and it is easier to print the organ itself. Steps are already being taken to test out this system using the BFF.
Personal thoughts
I am a huge space enthusiast and I love using space as a resource to improve our own lives on Earth. In my opinion we should all strive to improve the quality of life of humans in some way or another. No one should have to go through the unbearable pain of losing a family member prematurely no matter the cause. Often in these situation an organ transplant can save the patient but there are simply not enough at the moment. The easiest solution would be to force all people to donate their organs upon death. Unfortunately that means giving up freedom, a core value in the eyes of many. Of course this solution is completely unethical so it is not viable. If 3D printing organs can solve this then that is perfect.
Some might argue that printing organs let alone sending them to space is too costly and that ultimately to benefit form this one has to be extremely rich. To those I say two things. 1) As the process becomes streamlined the cost will go down and it would become more accessible as with any new product (ex: computers). 2) By eliminating the rich and those who can afford this solution form the waiting list we can decrease demand and the conventional organ transplants can be kept for the neediest.
As with any major disruption in human life many ethical concerns arise. These include fear that the human body will become meaningless.
“If you change everything in a person, organ by organ, arguably what’s left isn’t the human that was born, but some other creature.”-Ravi Birla
I believe that as long as the mind is the same the human is sill the same because the replacements are only derived from his own cells.
A sneaky side effect of being able to print organs is that is facilitates humans becoming interplanetary but that and all the ethical debate surrounding bioprinting is subject for another article. What do you think? are we still human if all our organs (besides the brain) are replaced? If you wish to be notified for any future articles please follow me on medium. I sincerely thank you for taking the time to read this.
Sources:
- “Organ Donation Statistics”- https://www.organdonor.gov/learn/organ-donation-statistics
- “BioFabrication Facility”-https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html#id=7599
- “3d printer for human tissue now available for research onboard the iss national laboratory”-https://www.issnationallab.org/iss360/3d-printer-for-human-tissue-now-available-for-research-onboard-the-iss-national-laboratory/
- “What can biofabrication do for space and what can space do for biofabrication?”- https://www.cell.com/trends/biotechnology/fulltext/S0167-7799(21)00195-5
- “Why astronauts are printing organs in space”-https://www.cell.com/trends/biotechnology/fulltext/S0167-7799(21)00195-5
- “Extrusion vs. DLP 3D Bioprinting — Explanatory comparison”- https://www.cellink.com/blog/extrusion-vs-dlp-3d-bioprinting-explanatory-comparison/
- “What is a bioink ?”- https://www.cellink.com/what-is-bioink/
- “Organ printing”- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organ_printing#History
- “Tel Aviv University scientists print first 3D heart using patient’s biological materials”- https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/498733
- “Microgravity bioprinting” -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microgravity_bioprinting
- “What 3D Bioprinting Is and How It Works”- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOGoUYVP2PY
