Need a Kidney? Print One Up
You're not going to believe this. They're making guns from 3-D printing , and now they're making live kidneys. I had to read the headline twice myself. But medicaldesigntechnology.com reports that "Researchers at a university in eastern Zhejiang Province have used a 3-D printer to create living kidneys, which are expected to be used for transplants in the future." Scientists in China worked to create a miniature of an actual kidney, according to fastcoexist.com. "The organ can carry out the same functions as human kidneys, like breaking down toxins, and researchers hope that (with, admittedly, many more years of research) they'll one day be a suitable replacement for human kidneys for patients in need of a transplant," the Web site recounts. "It's different from traditional 3-D printing," lead researcher Xu Mingen explained in a video posted to YouTube by the English-language news site China View, fastcoexist.com notes. ...