The thyroid gland, printed on a Russian 3D printer by a resident of the biological and medical technologies cluster of the Skolkovo Foundation, has been implanted and is successfully functioning in the body of a laboratory mouse. The printing of human organs is possible in the horizon of 15 years, the executive director of the cluster, vice-president of Skolkovo Kirill Kai told reporters in Novosibirsk on Tuesday.
“Our resident is one of five companies in the world that has learned how to make a working bioprinter. I printed the organ, transplanted the mice, the mouse's thyroid gland works, produces hormones,”said Kayem.
According to him, the resident company is focused both on the production of bioprinters and their sale, and on the further development of the scientific component of the project and, in the future, the printing of organs that can be transplanted to humans.
“They are going to print other organs as well, we are talking about the kidney, about the liver. So far, all this is at a laboratory level, but this will allow the machine itself (bioprinter - TASS note) to be developed,”said the executive director of the cluster of biomedical technologies.
According to him, when printing each individual organ, not only different cells are used, but also different algorithms are involved, which makes the project quite laborious. To print human organs, he noted, the developers should come in at least 15 years.