Chicago company prints miniature human heart 

3D printing of tissues for transplant organs is one of the most promising areas in contemporary medicine. American company BIOLIFE4D has recently made another advancement in this area by creating a miniature copy of a human heart with the same structure as the real organ. 

In order to put their plan into action, biotech company BIOLIFE4D combined patient-derived cardiomyocytes with bioink made from extracellular matrix compounds, creating an artificial organ. The company took advantage of its work in 2018, when BIOLIFE4D successfully created some artificial cardiac tissue. That year, the company also refined their skills by printing separate elements of an artificial heart - ventricles, valves and vessels. 

In the future, the company has plans to print a fully functional organ that can be used as a transplant. This kind of breakthrough in the development of 3D implants can overcome the scarcity of donor organs and save many lives. Other than BIOLIFE4D, many companies and scientists around the globe are working towards a solution to this problem.