A Novel Rapid Prototyping Approach to Tissue Engineering 

Over 80,000 people are on the National Organ Transplantation Waiting List. Eighteen of them die each day. Shiv Gaglani worked on a novel method to build replacement tissue and organs for these patients. After joining a team of South Carolina researchers, he advanced a method to “print” tissue structures using an ordinary, desktop inkjet printer and computer aided designs. By printing two dimensional layers one on top of another (“rapid prototyping”), he was able to construct a 3D branching tube of smooth muscle and endothelial cells – basically, a blood vessel. This novel approach allows rapid fabrication of 3D, multi-cellular tissue, or the building blocks of organs. He has continued his work in biomedical engineering and regenerative medicine by working with stem cells and nanotechnology at Harvard University.