Inkjet Technology For Organ Printing

It looks like organ printing inches even closer to being a viable medical technolgoy. I fully expect by the time I'm elderly to be able to get replacement organs this way.

"The breakthrough with this technology is that cells now can be precision-placed virtually instantaneously with the materials that make up a scaffold to hold the cells in place," Boland said. Precision placement of the cells is achieved by filling an empty inkjet cartridge with a hydrogel solution (a material that has properties similar to tissue) and another inkjet cartridge with cells. The printing is accomplished much in the way that color photographs are made, activating alternatively the hydrogel and cell nozzles.

ScienceDaily: Inkjet Technology For Organ Printing