RENAL RECONSTRUCTION: Wake Forest postdoctoral fellow Hyun-Wook Kang operates a 3-D printer that is making a kidney prototype with cells and biomaterials.IMAGE COURTESY OF WAKE FOREST INSTITUTE FOR REGENERATIVE MEDICINE
On a stage in front of an audience of thousands, a futuristic-looking machine squirted gel from a nozzle. Layer by layer, it built up the material, shaping it into a curved, pink, kidney-shape structure based on a medical CT scan of a real organ.
It was 2011, and Anthony Atala, director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, was demonstrating his progress in using three-dimensional (3-D) printing to make a kidney during his TED Talk. Like a TV chef pulling a previously baked casserole from the oven, Atala soon held a bean-shape object in his gloved hands. “Here it is,” he said. “You can actually see the kidney as it was printed earlier today.” The audience erupted into cheers.
But Atala had not made ...
