Scientists travel to the edge of space to 3D print a heart
3D bioprinting has long held the promise of ending organ donation lists, now there's an end in sight.
Key takeaways
- A team of scientists working for the NASA and SpaceX contractor Techshot have become the first people in history to successfully 3D print a heart structure in zero gravity using human stem cells.
- Going all the way to space and hitching a ride on a tricked out Airbus A310 Zero G aircraft might sound like fun but there are practical reasons for it.
Cite or link to this article
Griffin, M. (2016) 'Scientists travel to the edge of space to 3D print a heart', 311 Institute, 25 July. Available at: https://www.311institute.com/scientists-travel-to-the-stratosphere-to-3d-print-a-heart/ (Accessed: 1 October 2026).
A team of scientists working for the NASA and SpaceX contractor Techshot have become the first people in history to successfully 3D print a heart structure in zero gravity using human stem cells.
A collaboration between Techshot, bioprinting experts nScrypt and bio-ink innovators Bioficial Organs, the project saw researchers take to the skies in a Zero Gravity Corporation aircraft, the only commercial company in the US to offer weightless flights, in order to test out their prototype printer.
“We were constrained by the timeframe of a weightless flight,” said Eugene Boland, Techshot’s Chief Scientist.
“On the Zero G aircraft, you’re only weightless for 30 seconds at a time so as a result we had to print fairly small structures, just to give us an understanding of how the printer works. While our eventual goal is to print an entire human heart, in this case it was more a neonatal-size structure, around the size of the end joint on your pinkie finger.”
Nonetheless, the mission was a rousing success and data gathered from it will now be used to design and build a smaller, more robust 3D bioprinter which could be found printing organs on board the International Space Station as soon as 2018.
Going all the way to space and hitching a ride on a tricked out Airbus A310 Zero G aircraft might sound like fun but there are practical reasons for it.
“3D printers aren’t good at printing gaps,” Boland continues.
“They’re good at solid things, not hollow things. That makes it very difficult to print a heart in an environment like Earth where you have gravity, because the organ collapses in on itself. But if you go to space and take gravity out of the equation, you don’t have those same problems. It makes the possibility of this kind of bioprinting more feasible. And you could potentially save many, many lives as a result, since currently tens of thousands of people on the heart transplant list die each year. That’s where we envision this technology going.”
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Why does this matter?
3D bioprinting has long held the promise of ending organ donation lists, now there's an end in sight.
About the author
Matthew Griffin Founder, 311 Institute
Matthew Griffin is a multi-award winning Futurist and expert in Disruption and Innovation, Geopolitics, Leadership, and Technology, who NASA have described as a "walking encyclopaedia of the future" and a "futurist Polymath."
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Matthew Griffin is a multi-award winning Futurist and expert in Disruption and Innovation, Geopolitics, Leadership, and Technology, who NASA have described as a "walking encyclopaedia of the future" and a "futurist Polymath." 15-time best selling author of the "Codex of the Future" series, Matthew is the Founder and Futurist in Chief of the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures advisory firm working with royal households, world leaders, G7, G20, and G77 governments, NGOs, and multi-national mid and mega cap firms to help them explore, shape, and lead the next 50 years of business and society.
An award-winning YouTube creator with over a million followers, with an unrivalled global reach and impact, Matthew is a highly sought-after international keynote speaker, lecturer, and mentor who collaborates with global leaders through the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) and United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to shape pivotal initiatives such as the UN’s AI for Humanity program, the United Nations Conference of the Parties (UN COP), and the World Economic Forum in Davos.
As the former Global Head of Cloud, National Security, and Enterprise Sales for companies including Atos, Dell-EMC, and IBM, Matthew has a proven track record of building multi-billion dollar business units and turning failing divisions into market leaders. His ability to identify, analyse, and communicate the implications of hundreds of emerging technologies and trends is unparalleled, and his insights are trusted by many of the world’s most respected organisations, including ABB, Accenture, Adidas, AON, ARM, BCG, Centrica, Citi, Coca-Cola, Dentons, Deloitte, Dow Jones, EY, Google, KPMG, Lego, Legal & General, LinkedIn, Microsoft, PepsiCo, Qualcomm, RWE, Samsung, Siemens AG and Siemens Energy, T-Mobile, UBS, VISA, Walmart, Workday, Worldpay and many others.
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Source: first published by the 311 Institute on 25 July 2016. Cite as: Griffin, M. (2016). Scientists travel to the edge of space to 3D print a heart. 311 Institute. https://www.311institute.com/scientists-travel-to-the-stratosphere-to-3d-print-a-heart/
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