A To Z Blogging Challenge: Biotechnology And Advances In Biomedical Engineering

Biotechnology is a combination of natural biological systems and artificial human-created technology and/or uses. It's commonly associated with genetics, pharmaceutical drugs, etc., though the history of biotechnology stretches back thousands of years to when people first began using yeast to make bread and selectively bred plants to give better crop yields.

A recent development in the field of biotechnology/biomedical engineering is 3D-printing of cells and, subsequently, organs. By using living cells, scientists have "printed" out human ears made out of cartilage, just as normal ears are. Researchers have yet to develop an ear created from a specific person's cells (a combination of rat collagen and cow cartilage was used in previous experiments), but that would be the next step in creating organs with the patient's own DNA.

Source: Wikimedia Commons, CC-SA-3.0, by Mnolf

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Sources:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/20/scientists-create-new-ear_n_2728612.html
http://www.gizmag.com/3d-printed-bioengineered-ears/26368/
http://www.public.asu.edu/~langland/biotech-intro.html
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/biotechnology

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Would you agree to have your cells removed, printed, and implanted, should a method of growing cells for printing be achieved? Or do you think the technology has a long way to go before it will be practical?


----The Golden Eagle