Mouse Thyroid Bioprinted in Space
January 15, 2019 | Terry Sharrer
Last month, the Russian news agency reported that astronauts aboard the International Space Station used the 3D magnetic “Organ.Aut” bioprinter to print a mouse thyroid. Quoting directly: “Why bioprint in space at all? According to Invitro, the parent company of 3D Bioprinting Solutions, the zero-gravity environment in space enables printed organs and tissues to mature at faster rates, making it a favourable environment compared to Earth for bioprinting. Perhaps in the future, the very first bioprinted human organs will be printed in space. But we won’t hold our breath for that quite yet.” This report does not say if the printed thyroid expressed T3 and T4 hormones, but “far out” as this is, it seems to be the right direction. MORE
Image Credit: 3D Bioprinting Solutions