Legendary inventor Dean Kamen jumpstarts human organ manufacturing in the US

Courtesy of ARMI Biofabusa

The BioAssemblyBot can 3D print advanced tissue structures for the biofabrication of human tissue and organs.

To try to achieve that same level of success, he has enlisted NIST to help form standards that keeps work in the field focused — a key requirement in getting FDA approval when it begins biofabrication. And IEEE is assisting in bringing together the multiple engineers that will be required to make this a reality.

While the recreation of human organs captures the most attention, Kamen acknowledges that’s going to take a little extra time. However, he says, ARMI has promised the DOD that within five years it will have the capabilities to supply, at significant scale, products that are just as essential.

“It will probably be skin and bone and cartilage,” he says. “In the end, the whole heart, ling, liver, kidney … we think we’ll get there. Up front, much simpler than those complex organs … they [the DoD] need nerves; they need muscle. They’ve asked ‘What about can you give me … to rebuild someone who had an interaction with an IED?”

It’s a project that has tremendous potential, but will require a tremendous amount of work. And Kamen is a man who likes to keep his fingers in many different pies. While he’s not stepping away from FIRST, his program to get students interested in science, technology and engineering, or any of his other projects, he says ARMI is anything but a side project for him.

“I don’t spend my whole day [focused on it], but I can tell you ARMI is not ‘instead’ of my day job, it’s in addition to it,” he says.