3D Printed Human Heart By 2023

A 3D printed human heart may seem like something that may come in the distant future, but Dr. Stuart K. Williams believes that by 2023, such an accomplishment will likely have taken place.

http://3dprint.com/869/3d-printed-hu...top-scientist/

In fact he and his team are already working on the machine that will eventually print out the hearts. Such an advancement would save thousands of lives every year in the US alone. The current obstacles are related to printing out the organ with working blood vessels. Do you think Williams' estimates are accurate?

If we could 3D print a human heart within 10 years that would be far more than just a timeline. It would be an amazing living breathing accomplishment changing medical science forever! Such an achievement would probably win a Nobel award in medical science.

Some American guy said in 1960 that the USA would put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. They did, and with "primitive" tools. I'd put the actual date of the first printed heart closer to 2020.

Old Man Emu

I just read today this interesting and disheartening (no pun intended) SeekingAlpha analysis on the flagship bioprinting organization Organovo. I do think that this type of technology has an incredible future. However as always the ultimate shape, timing, and scope of true technological breakthroughs cannot be predicted, as the future of mankind is seldom an extrapolation of past (human behavior is funny like that). I follow food 3D printing at @foodfabbing.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/2077...o-holdings-inc
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Best Short Idea In 2014: Organovo Holdings, Inc.

Mar. 10, 2014 8:40 AM ET | About: ONVO, Includes: ICEL

Disclosure: I am short ONVO. (More...)

Summary

• ONVO's promise of creating "3d bio-printed organs" for humans is a pipe dream decades away, and ONVO has neither the capital nor people necessary to succeed at such a venture.
• ONVO's 3D bioprinting technology is far too slow and expensive to deliver a viable product for drug toxicity testing, the only near-term market identified by management.
• ONVO's patent protection is extremely weak and does not come close to claiming all of the methods necessary to "print" human organs in the future.
• ONVO scientific co-founder, Gabor Forgacs, has left his role at the company and is pursuing more viable opportunities (synthetic leather & meat) with notable venture capital backers.
• ONVO executives are cashing out: the top three (Keith Murphy, Barry Michaels and Sharon Presnell) have sold ~$7 million worth of ONVO stock and pay themselves nearly $1 million annually

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A printed heart may be the right size and have all of the hookups, but it would be weak. Natural human hearts have been conditioned from infancy to x age working non-stop, whereas a 3d printed heart is atrophied muscle, unexercised and may fail under the natural stresses of an adult body. The hearts would have to be exercised / stressed before they would be able to be transplanted.

I may be wrong, but if there will be a human heart printed by 2023, wouldn't that mean that just about every body part could be 3d printed by then? If that is the case, there is no reason why we shouldn't all be living to 150.