Computer, print me a kidney, Anthony Atala of the Wake Forest Institute of Regen

[greg10]

Anthony Atala has been featured here before, although it is not clear why his work has not been commercially popularized.  Atala claims he has had a kidney patient implanted with an experimentally "printed" kidney for over a decade.
http://ihatedialysis.com/forum/index.php?topic=17829.msg310343#msg310343

March 4 2011 at 08:59am
 
Long Beach, California - A surgeon specialising in regenerative medicine on Thursday “printed” a real kidney using a machine that eliminates the need for donors when it comes to organ transplants.

“It's like baking a cake,” Anthony Atala of the Wake Forest Institute of Regenerative Medicine said as he cooked up a fresh kidney on stage at a TED Conference in the California city of Long Beach.

Scanners are used to take a 3D image of a kidney that needs replacing, then a tissue sample about half the size of postage stamp is used to seed the computerised process, Atala explained.

The organ “printer” then works layer-by-layer to build a replacement kidney replicating the patient's tissue.

College student Luke Massella was among the first people to receive a printed kidney during experimental research a decade ago when he was just 10 years old.

He said he was born with Spina Bifida and his kidneys were not working.

“Now, I'm in college and basically trying to live life like a normal kid,” said Massella, who was reunited with Atala at TED.

“This surgery saved my life and made me who I am today.”

About 90 percent of people waiting for transplants are in need of kidneys, and the need far outweighs the supply of donated organs, according to Atala.

“There is a major health crisis today in terms of the shortage of organs,” Atala said. “Medicine has done a much better job of making us live longer, and as we age our organs don't last.” - Sapa-AFP

http://www.iol.co.za/scitech/science/news/computer-print-me-a-kidney-1.1035985
http://www.ted.com/talks/anthony_atala_growing_organs_engineering_tissue.html
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-03/tissue-engineer-prints-replacement-kidney-onstage-ted-2011

[Zach]

Here is more info on the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Kidney Program:
http://www.wfubmc.edu/Research/WFIRM/Research/Engineering-A-Kidney.htm

They are a long way off.


" ... Scientists at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine hope that a decade from now, there will be new treatments for failed kidneys.

We foresee a time when cell therapy will replace damaged kidney tissue, or a device will be implanted in the body to augment kidney function. Such therapeutic solutions would boost the limited amount of function left in diseased kidneys.

We hope that stem cell science will advance to the point that scientists can inject renal cells into the body to replace damaged kidney cells.

Already, we have cultured cells with the characteristics of kidney cells. These cells were placed on an artificial renal device that has a tubular component, collection system, and a reservoir, similar to a bladder. When the device is implanted in animals, the cells are able to form kidney structures and produce a urine-like fluid.

Our team’s next step is to develop a model of renal insufficiency to test whether the tissue can actually improve kidney function. At the same time, we are working on a project to inject cells into kidney tissue without the use of an artificial renal device. We have tested injections in experimental models, and our preliminary studies show that the injected cells are able to form tubular structures and have some evidence that they are integrated into native tissue."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And the writer of the article posted by greg10 got the story wrong when referring to Luke Massella as having received a printed kidney about a decade ago.  It turns out he received an engineered bladder --still a great scientific achievement.

Very poor journalism.  And now this misinformation is spreading across the internet.

You can read Luke's story, in his own words:
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/explorer/4828/luke
 

[okarol]

Thanks Zach.

TED2011: Great Minds Share Their Next Big Idea in Just 18 Minutes
Wake Forest Scientists Present 'Printed' Copy of Human Kidney at 2011 TED Conference
BY JENNIFER METZ, JAKE WHITMAN AND MARGARET ARO
March 4, 2011

Welcome to TED, where the world's great minds come to dream the impossible and show that it's happening. This week in Long Beach, Calif., the room gasped at the sight of something that could revolutionize medicine: organs created, in effect, as Xerox copies.

VIDEO: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/ted2011-great-minds-share-big-idea-18-minutes/story?id=13058615
       
Dr. Anthony Atala, the director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, has spent 30 years studying the ability to grow and regenerate human tissue. Stepping onto the TED2011 stage Thursday for his 18-minute talk, he put out his hand and said, "And here it is, you can actually see the human kidney, as it was printed earlier today."

Watch "World News with Diane Sawyer" for more on this story tonight on ABC.

In just seven hours, Wake Forest scientists created a functioning human kidney, using cells regenerated from a sample of the patient's living cells. A machine separated out the cells that specialized into kidney cells, which then were grown in a lab and layered on top of one another until they were sculpted into a kidney.

The scientists call it "printing."

Dr. Atala was just one of the 50 or so speakers to present their great ideas over the four-day conference.

Five years ago, TED, a nonprofit organization devoted to "ideas worth spreading," started taking some of these great lectures and putting them online for free. No speaker is ever allowed to go more than 18 minutes -- just 18 minutes to share the next great idea.

[galvo]

I guess that someday the sun will shine on us who are still around.

[chook]

I read about this in yesterday's paper. Amazing. It's great to know there is such research going on.

[lawphi]

While I wish the patient had gotten a kidney, I was about to be very mad that my husband wasn't offered this option at Wake Forest Baptist when he was there    It is great to know that the answer to the biggest problem my family faces is an hour and a half away from my home.

There will be a big need for placenta donation to grow kidneys.  I can only imagine how biopsy donors would spring up for those who have had their kidneys removed or atrophied. 

[Zach]

In just seven hours, Wake Forest scientists created a functioning human kidney ...

Unfortunately this statement is not true.

It was not a functioning human kidney.
It was only a hollow mold of a kidney.

 

[lawphi]

http://www.ted.com/talks/anthony_atala_growing_organs_engineering_tissue.html

A good video regarding the technology.

The video shows one of the "mini kidneys" that they have grown with "urine". 

[greg10]

Thanks to Zach for putting the facts straight.

There would be a lot less misinformation if TED stopped charging so much for the live webcast.

[Zach]

Thanks to Zach for putting the facts straight.

There would be a lot less misinformation if TED stopped charging so much for the live webcast.

You're absolutely correct!

It's all about money --the fees TED charges and the investors that many of the presenters are seeking.
And in between it all, the facts are sometimes played fast and loose.