Scientists around the world seek to achieve the advances necessary for organ transplantation. In the case of the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), researchers work tirelessly to find solutions with technologies such as 3D bioprinting or regenerative medicine:
Before we were limited to being able to transplant organs from one patient to another. Bioprinting, regenerative medicine, allows us to venture that in a few years we will be able to replace these organs with artificial tissue generated in the systems we see in the laboratory.
Josep Samitier, director of IBEC
Before we were limited to being able to transplant organs from one patient to another. Bioprinting, regenerative medicine, allows us to venture that in a few years we will be able to replace these organs with artificial tissue generated in the systems we see in the laboratory.Nuria Montserrat’s team at IBEC has already managed to replicate almost the entire structure of a human organ at a millimeter scale by using a 3D bio-printer.
Núria Montserrat, Group Leader at IBEC
They already contain 16 types of cells of the more than 20 that a human organ would have, and what we want is to regenerate small lesions, but we are talking about years or a decade to build the complete organ.
The documentary also includes the biobots produced in Samuel Sánchez’s laboratory, one of the scientific milestones achieved at IBEC in 2021, and published in the prestigious Science Robotics magazine.
More information about the National Geographic documentary, here.
