Bioengineers and Designers Bring 3-D-Printed Organs One Step Closer

The promise of 3-D-printing functioning organs has always been to relieve the current donor system. According to the United Network for Organ Sharing, there are currently more than 74 thousand people on the waiting list for an organ donation in the U.S., but in the first three months of 2019, only 9,502 transplants were performed. There is a shortage of available donor organs, and 3-D-printing them on demand could be a solution. However, to compete with real human organs, these 3-D-printed organs have to be capable of taking on their intended function. For a relatively simple organ, like the bladder, this isn’t too difficult. But 3-D-printing lungs, for example, is an entirely different story.

Lungs are complex structures, with intricate pathways of air ducts and blood vessels that interact with each other to make a functioning lung. Jordan Miller, a bioengineer at Rice University, recognized that 3-D-printing such a delicate network of intertwining vessels is a work of art, so he enlisted help from artists…

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