Tel Aviv University Researchers Have Successfully 3D Printed A Human Heart This is a major medical breakthrough because the world’s first 3D vascularized engineered heart was printed using the patient's cells and specific biological materials. It has the same immunological, cellular, biochemical, and anatomical properties of the patient's original heart. "Never before has a full organ been printed with complete success and been able to be put to use. In regenerative medicine, scientists have only been successful in printing simple tissues without blood vessels. This is the first time anyone anywhere has successfully engineered and printed an entire heart replete with cells, blood vessels, ventricles, and chambers.” People have managed to 3D-print the structure of a heart in the past, but this approach is personalized and has more potential for tissue and organ replacement in the future. “The biocompatibility of engineered materials is crucial to eliminating the risk of implant rejection, which jeopardizes the success of such treatments. Ideally, the biomaterial should possess the same biochemical, mechanical, and topographical properties of the patient’s own tissues. The printed heart still needs to be developed further, and they still need to figure out how to make it ‘behave’ like a heart." Hopefully in the future we can have organ printers in hospitals around the world that can be available to everybody with heart failure, offering an effective alternative to the risks and difficulties of organ transplant from donors. Quoted text from https://www.collective-evolution.com/2020/03/09/tel-aviv-university-researchers-have-successfully-3d-printed-a-human-heart/?fbclid=IwAR0R4uU-BXf4s0mtLV0P0Pz70HFfgj4Oljkyah4t86MQlCJXv_jflkRQs4c