Autonomous Organ Printing BioPrint Enters Preclinical Trials: Printing New Organs from Your Own Cells

Autonomous Organ Printing BioPrint Enters Preclinical Trials

US company Organovo and Mayo Clinic's BioPrint project published milestone animal trial results in May 2028 — the team successfully printed functional kidney tissue in live pigs that maintained normal function for six months post-implantation.

How It Works

BioPrint uses "in situ bioprinting" technology. Rather than printing organs externally then implanting them, BioPrint prints directly at the target organ location. The system extracts stem cells from the patient's own fat tissue, differentiates them into required cell types, then deposits them layer by layer onto damaged organ surfaces via micro 3D print heads.

Organovo CTO Jennifer Lewis explained: "The biggest challenge in organ printing is vascularization. BioPrint's in situ approach leverages existing blood vessel networks from surrounding healthy tissue."

Animal Trial Results

In two-year pig trials, kidney tissue was printed for 12 pigs with chronic kidney disease. Six-month biopsies showed complete vascularization with glomerular filtration rates recovering by an average of 43%. Critically, since the pigs' own cells were used, no immune rejection occurred.

From Patches to Complete Organs

BioPrint's initial target is not complete replacement organs but "patches" for damaged organs. This approach has a far lower technical barrier than whole-organ printing but enormous clinical value.

Organovo CEO Michael Renard said: "Our first product will be kidney tissue patches for chronic kidney disease patients. Human clinical trials are expected to begin in 2029."