PartⅢ Script of the Audiovisual Material
Organ Printing
Forgacs：My name is Gabor Forgacs.In the future,we'll be able to harness nature's ability to form organs and build our own.
Dr.Forgacs and his lab are pioneering a radical way of building new internal organs.They are creating new organs cell by cell,literally printing copies of the original organs nature gives us.
Forgacs：Organ printing sounds really like the ultimate science fiction.
This technology is considered the future of tissue engineering.It's based on the fact that the cluster of human cells,what Dr.Forgacs calls“bioink,”behaviors just like a liquid.When placed next to one another,the clumps will flow together and fuse,form ing layers or other shapes.
Forgacs：These are the biolink particles.Each of them is composed of about ten to thirty thousand cells.
To build 3D structures like organs,Forgacs and his team used printers to assemble the human cells into the designed shape.It's sim ilar to how an inkjet printer produces words.Cells survive printing process well.
Forgacs：This is the bioprinter.(https://www.daowen.com)
Your printer can't assemble solid objects,let alone a human organ,but this one will.The printer creates sheets of cell-friendly biopaper.Then it prints out living cell clusters onto the paper drop by drop.Once in place,nature takes over.The cell clusters fuse each other,creating more complex tissue structures.
Forgacs：We cannot control every detail of the process,but it turns out that this is not necessary,because biological material,by fundamental nature,is able to self-organize.As each layer's completed,another layer of cell cluster's added.
Forgacs：We build the first story,then we will build the second story,and then we will build the third story.And that's how we get the skyscraper.
Eventually,the biopaper separating the layers dissolves,and the individual layers of cells fuse together.
Forgacs：That's the way we build 3 dimensional structures.
Since cells from any organ can be put through this printing process,Forgacs foresees using this technique to replace any damaged organ.Since the organ will be printed from your cells,there will be little chance of rejection.
Forgacs：Imagine someone who had a bypass surgery.That person is living with a heart which is not fully functional,so I can envision printing shapes of cardiac tissue which can attach to the damaged heart.Well,w ill I be able to replace my liver because I'm a heavy drinker？W ill I be able to replace my lungs because I had been a smoker？Well,my first advice is don't be a heavy smoker.But having said that,of course,it is quite possible that this technology will be useful within one's lifetime.Why can't we imagine that at some point when you need to replace a damaged organ,you are rolled out of the operating theater with a new organ that is printed into your body.I think that what was science fiction fifty years ago is close to reality today.