MAKE | Grow It Yourself – 3D Printing Living Structures

Pioneering bioartist Oron Catts will give a two-part workshop titled “Grow It Yourself – The Semi Living World,” at Brooklyn’s Genspace later this month. If you can’t afford the workshop but are interested in the topic, you may want to consider attending his talk on Wednesday, July 25th, which is free.

Today with 3D printing we can make our own products from dead materials like plastics. What if we could print living material—like organs and skin—with a 3D bioprinter? Make your own tissue cultures at this workshop. First, learn how to design and build a DIY incubator, sterile hood and centrifuge. Then learn the essentials of tissue engineering. The workshop will cover the main techniques of regenerative medicine and will explore the broader cultural and artistic implication of using living tissue within artistic context. By the end of the course you will have learned how to make the tools necessary for tissue engineering and build your own living structure with biodegradable soft polymers and 3D scaffolds created by a MakerBot 3D printer.

More events at Genspace.

5 Responses to Grow It Yourself – 3D Printing Living Structures

Cate on July 5th, 2012 at 8:20 am said:

That’s unreal! Thanks so much for sharing this. I’m going to just sit here and be amazed for a while.

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Greg on July 5th, 2012 at 2:10 pm said:

Incredible. Tissue engineering in the garage. I want to make an eyeball.

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TK_M on July 6th, 2012 at 12:11 am said:

3D printing with genes is already a reality. The process has been automated and you can order any gene sequence and get your DNA back by post.

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Rosie Wilson on July 12th, 2012 at 8:48 am said:

techfortrade, (a London-based charity) are trying to explore ways in which 3D printing can be used for social benefit (including for medical use), therefore we have launched the 3D4D Challenge, a competition for people with transformational ideas that could leverage 3D printing technologies to deliver real social benefits in the developing world, with the winner receiving $100,000 to help implement their idea.

I would love to start a discussion on ways in which 3d printing could help to relieve poverty in developing countries.

Also, if you are interested in applying for the competition, you can enter here or contact me at research@trade4all.org.

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DavidSG on July 21st, 2012 at 5:11 pm said:

What “artistic” uses would there be for printed tissue, I wonder?

“And here the artist has explored the juxtaposition between heart and kidney, in a viscerally moving work titled ‘Very Offal’”

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