Bioprinting: To Make Ourselves Anew
By Kenneth Douglas (PhDPhys'83)
(Oxford University Press, 320 pages; 2021)
Of the 121,000 people on donor lists in the U.S., over 100,000 need kidney transplants and thousands die each year while waiting. Bioprinting aspires to build healthy kidney tissue from a patient's own cells and transplant this to boost failing kidneys without fear of rejection...
As the 21st century dawned, a handful of inspired scientists tried to use 3D printing to create living human tissue. Their vision was to restore the health of people with intractable injuries, such as worn out cartilage, severed nerves, ailing kidneys, failing hearts鈥晅he gamut of human frailties.
Their modest success energized others to join the quest. Now, after two decades of ingenious effort and hard work, they have carved out a vibrant new discipline: bioprinting.
In Bioprinting: To Make Ourselves Anew, physicist Kenneth Douglas casts an eye over the achievements and future of bioprinting. He explains the science with rigor but with a minimum of technical baggage. This is the first book on the subject written expressly for the lay audience: accessible and
even entertaining. Douglas interviewed two dozen bioprinting researchers from around the world, and he enriches the narrative by sharing stories from the scientists behind the science. These contemporary vignettes are complemented by historical accounts of the women and men whose prescient
contributions were foundational to the development of bioprinting.
The book describes the challenges and accomplishments in the bioprinting of blood vessels, cartilage, skin, bone, skeletal muscle, neuromuscular junctions, liver, heart, lung, kidney, and so-called organs-on-a-chip, as well as the challenges of providing a blood supply and nerves to bioprinted
tissues. This is a compelling tale of a work in progress: to imitate nature and help heal people with debilitating afflictions.