O n May 11 2020, the crypto world experienced the phenomena knows as Bitcoin halving . For those who are still a little looney-toons regarding this phenomena, here's the lowdown . Moral of the story is that, as the Bitcoin supply decreased and it's 21 million market cap slowly approached, it was widely accepted that the low supply and high demand will increase the price of the cryptocurrency back to its previous highs. Basic business right? Wrong! Source: Equity Trust Company BTC prices actually fell and after briefly holding steady, are only just rising above the 10000 USD range. Surprise eh? Well, we are not done yet. Because while the most valuable crypto coin wasn't showing it's expected gains, some other cryptocurrencies shot to outer space. There was no SpaceX rocket nor a Tesla Roadster involved. These "altcoins" bumped up in their market value thanks to the entire underlying system of cryptocurrency: investor speculation. But what exactly are these &q
Ever since 3d printing became a socio-cultural fad (like driving Teslas in California, or tweeting about Trump on Twitter), some very smart scientists have wondered whether they could theoretically pump out human organs from the metal behemoths of printers to address the organ transplant shortage. Tissue engineering has always been a widely awesome field ( especially for the people who actually understand wtf is going on) but has and is also widely expensive, so the possibility of building your own 3d printer to print out a set of abs and sticking it to your body easily and cheaply may be the best thing since sliced bread.
What is tissue engineering?
Tissue engineering is in the sense a very self-explanatory term ( like calling someone dumb or stupid). It is basically combining a lot of biological thingies ( cells, biomedical methods, other external factors) into generating the desired tissue. Be it Dwayne Johnson's biceps, or Kim K's gluteus maximus, tissue engineering has umpteen possibilities.
Huh...how does it work?
- Well, I'm no expert in bio, but after researching a little (I'll post sources below) the process mainly begins with the development of a scaffold. Now, this scaffold is not the same as the ones used for building buildings or painting buildings and I'm 40% sure the scaffold we are talking about here is not made from bamboo sticks and rope. But the underlying definition of both scaffold types is the same: a surrounding matrix from which a structure is grown. While the biological scaffold might help you get into girls/guys dm's ( if you know what I mean) the building scaffold is well...meant for building things. These scaffolds, which are built from proteins and plastics, can now be filled with the cell you want to regenerate into your favourite tissue. Sometimes a cocktail of substances called 'growth factors' are added to simulate growth (duh) and after some extensive praying to the lord of tissues, a tissue is built.
What if the immune system rejects it?
- That is always a high possibility. Tissue rejection is one of the things medical scientists dread more than getting rejected by the opposite sex. One solution is to use existing scaffolds. The cells of a donor organ are ripped to shreds and whatever is left ( collagen) is made into scaffolds. By combining this with the patients own cells, custom tissues ( optionally with your nickname slathered all over it) can be made to organs which probably won't get rejected.
What does my precious 3d printer have to do with all this biological building stuff?
- As it turns out, a lot can be made from a 3d printer. Your favourite toy car, a slab of fake chocolate to give to your sibling and watch them break their teeth, as well the advent of actually printing allegedly edible food. Tissue engineering so far has played a small role in the biomedical field as it is very expensive. And every procedure almost feels like the first time, so it is highly experimental. Instead of adding an ear you might just create a slab of belly fat. The inspirational quote 'Try, try again until you succeed.' becomes highly un-inspirational as you have to spend more hours working while your patient stares incredulously at the bill you just handed them for producing absolutely nothing. (Unless your patient is Bill Gates, though he would probably leave after seeing an iMac on your desk.). So 3D printing tissue could be the answer to ultimate feasibility. And a group of smartasses have it figured out.
Some enlightened apes at Wake Forest University at Northern Carolina said (in 2016) that they created a printer that could build organs or tissue and possibly insert it ( like a coin in a vending machine) into a HomoSapien body. Instead of using plastic (heaven forbid), they used 'hydrogels' ( basically water with living things called cells in it) and some other materials (To provide strength. Biodegradable of course) to build tissue. Being smart, they made sure that their structures also received proper O2 and blood supply. And when implanted into animals, those structures matured and became proper living tissues (not a pair of sanitary wipes with the shape of the year drawn on it. Although the concept is still a pretty early first-gen revelation, it is a revelation nonetheless. It has been two years since the group published their research in Nature (https://www.nature.com/articles/nbt.3413), so maybe they have done some proper advancements. But the most important part is that their procedure is feasible, still expensive, I mean its not something you do or buy daily like your grocery, but definitely cheaper than not 3-D printing.
Which is great because there is bound to be someone out there with a crapload of money, a spare 3d printer and enough medical knowledge to know the difference between hand tissues and body tissues to hypothetically replicate this discovery. And it is fairly possible that maybe in the next 10 or so years we could pump out 3d printed organs faster than rabbits make smaller rabbits.
But the best part has got to be the fact that this research when imparted into humans, could probably cure brain diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. Spoilt brain tissue...no problem grows new tissue.
Have a festering disease in your leg. Simply cut it off, hobble to the nearest 3d printing doctor and et voila! a brand new leg which actually feels like skin instead of some second-hand Terminator crap.
The possibilities of not just medical but also recreational fields are endless. You could make yourself so tall the sky would literally be the limit. Want the ideal body..get one. Slide into DM's faster than the cars slide in Tokyo Drift. Who knows maybe one day we could make a mini Steve Rogers into a mega Steve Rogers. Our technological prowess has been growing exponentially, hasn't it? The limiting factor is probably our brain. But then again you could get a new one. How cool would that be? Passing exams would be a breeze. This the holy grail of the future.
The downside is that maybe the scientists would get rejected, as in tissue rejections for the human body. The possibility of side effects is also endless. And I bet the scientists were more careful about the concentrations and volumes of products than A-level students giving their Chemistry practicals. That in comparison to some random people with the same amount of technology but infinitely more laziness? Not too good. They probably don't even know how to spell burette much less know what it is. It could spawn an entirely new black market where crazy people look even crazier. And people who should die might actually live longer. Just imagine Bieber still belting out his songs in 2200 or Kim and Kanye getting into the news for actually no reason, year-after-year-after year. Life would be unbearable and by god, the military possibilities of this technology. Super soldiers, dumbass politicians with absolutely nothing good to talk about. Year. After. Year. After. Year.
I at HomoSapien am an optimist. That is why I made the 'good paragraph' longer than the bad'paragraph'. But the truth is, more the good possibilities = equal number of bad side effects. But like I said they are all "possibilities". We are all good people, aren't we? I mean, come on sliding into DM's is more important than sliding into the next genetically engineered super World War. And both sliced bread and tissue engineering are amazing. Peace is the best thing to do guys. Look at Trump and Kim. Look at Putin.
Cheers.
Sources :- https://www.nature.com/articles/nbt.3413
https://www.nibib.nih.gov/science-education/science-topics/tissue-engineering-and-regenerative-medicine.
What is tissue engineering?
Tissue engineering is in the sense a very self-explanatory term ( like calling someone dumb or stupid). It is basically combining a lot of biological thingies ( cells, biomedical methods, other external factors) into generating the desired tissue. Be it Dwayne Johnson's biceps, or Kim K's gluteus maximus, tissue engineering has umpteen possibilities.
Huh...how does it work?
- Well, I'm no expert in bio, but after researching a little (I'll post sources below) the process mainly begins with the development of a scaffold. Now, this scaffold is not the same as the ones used for building buildings or painting buildings and I'm 40% sure the scaffold we are talking about here is not made from bamboo sticks and rope. But the underlying definition of both scaffold types is the same: a surrounding matrix from which a structure is grown. While the biological scaffold might help you get into girls/guys dm's ( if you know what I mean) the building scaffold is well...meant for building things. These scaffolds, which are built from proteins and plastics, can now be filled with the cell you want to regenerate into your favourite tissue. Sometimes a cocktail of substances called 'growth factors' are added to simulate growth (duh) and after some extensive praying to the lord of tissues, a tissue is built.
What if the immune system rejects it?
- That is always a high possibility. Tissue rejection is one of the things medical scientists dread more than getting rejected by the opposite sex. One solution is to use existing scaffolds. The cells of a donor organ are ripped to shreds and whatever is left ( collagen) is made into scaffolds. By combining this with the patients own cells, custom tissues ( optionally with your nickname slathered all over it) can be made to organs which probably won't get rejected.
What does my precious 3d printer have to do with all this biological building stuff?
- As it turns out, a lot can be made from a 3d printer. Your favourite toy car, a slab of fake chocolate to give to your sibling and watch them break their teeth, as well the advent of actually printing allegedly edible food. Tissue engineering so far has played a small role in the biomedical field as it is very expensive. And every procedure almost feels like the first time, so it is highly experimental. Instead of adding an ear you might just create a slab of belly fat. The inspirational quote 'Try, try again until you succeed.' becomes highly un-inspirational as you have to spend more hours working while your patient stares incredulously at the bill you just handed them for producing absolutely nothing. (Unless your patient is Bill Gates, though he would probably leave after seeing an iMac on your desk.). So 3D printing tissue could be the answer to ultimate feasibility. And a group of smartasses have it figured out.
Some enlightened apes at Wake Forest University at Northern Carolina said (in 2016) that they created a printer that could build organs or tissue and possibly insert it ( like a coin in a vending machine) into a HomoSapien body. Instead of using plastic (heaven forbid), they used 'hydrogels' ( basically water with living things called cells in it) and some other materials (To provide strength. Biodegradable of course) to build tissue. Being smart, they made sure that their structures also received proper O2 and blood supply. And when implanted into animals, those structures matured and became proper living tissues (not a pair of sanitary wipes with the shape of the year drawn on it. Although the concept is still a pretty early first-gen revelation, it is a revelation nonetheless. It has been two years since the group published their research in Nature (https://www.nature.com/articles/nbt.3413), so maybe they have done some proper advancements. But the most important part is that their procedure is feasible, still expensive, I mean its not something you do or buy daily like your grocery, but definitely cheaper than not 3-D printing.
Which is great because there is bound to be someone out there with a crapload of money, a spare 3d printer and enough medical knowledge to know the difference between hand tissues and body tissues to hypothetically replicate this discovery. And it is fairly possible that maybe in the next 10 or so years we could pump out 3d printed organs faster than rabbits make smaller rabbits.
But the best part has got to be the fact that this research when imparted into humans, could probably cure brain diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. Spoilt brain tissue...no problem grows new tissue.
Have a festering disease in your leg. Simply cut it off, hobble to the nearest 3d printing doctor and et voila! a brand new leg which actually feels like skin instead of some second-hand Terminator crap.
The possibilities of not just medical but also recreational fields are endless. You could make yourself so tall the sky would literally be the limit. Want the ideal body..get one. Slide into DM's faster than the cars slide in Tokyo Drift. Who knows maybe one day we could make a mini Steve Rogers into a mega Steve Rogers. Our technological prowess has been growing exponentially, hasn't it? The limiting factor is probably our brain. But then again you could get a new one. How cool would that be? Passing exams would be a breeze. This the holy grail of the future.
The downside is that maybe the scientists would get rejected, as in tissue rejections for the human body. The possibility of side effects is also endless. And I bet the scientists were more careful about the concentrations and volumes of products than A-level students giving their Chemistry practicals. That in comparison to some random people with the same amount of technology but infinitely more laziness? Not too good. They probably don't even know how to spell burette much less know what it is. It could spawn an entirely new black market where crazy people look even crazier. And people who should die might actually live longer. Just imagine Bieber still belting out his songs in 2200 or Kim and Kanye getting into the news for actually no reason, year-after-year-after year. Life would be unbearable and by god, the military possibilities of this technology. Super soldiers, dumbass politicians with absolutely nothing good to talk about. Year. After. Year. After. Year.
I at HomoSapien am an optimist. That is why I made the 'good paragraph' longer than the bad'paragraph'. But the truth is, more the good possibilities = equal number of bad side effects. But like I said they are all "possibilities". We are all good people, aren't we? I mean, come on sliding into DM's is more important than sliding into the next genetically engineered super World War. And both sliced bread and tissue engineering are amazing. Peace is the best thing to do guys. Look at Trump and Kim. Look at Putin.
Cheers.
Sources :- https://www.nature.com/articles/nbt.3413
https://www.nibib.nih.gov/science-education/science-topics/tissue-engineering-and-regenerative-medicine.
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