Russia's Skolkovo 3D-Prints Thyroid for Mouse, Human Organs Could Be Next

A company in the Skolkovo Innovation Center made an artificial thyroid gland using a 3D printer, which was then successfully implanted into a live mouse, Skolkovo’s Vice President Kirill Kaem said.

This is the first time an actual organ has been made using a 3D printer developed in Russia.

"Our resident [the researcher company], is one of five companies in the world that developed a working 3D bio-printer and the first company to print a functioning organ [a thyroid gland] which was successfully transplanted to a mouse," Kaem told journalists.

The company is planning to start printing other organs in the future, including kidneys and livers, and is currently working on selling bio-printers to companies interested in biological 3D-printing, Kaem said.

Although the printing and implanting of a thyroid gland into a mouse was successful, there's still some time before companies could start printing human organs.

"In terms of printing human organs… It will take a long time before it can happen in a pure form, "from scratch," it might occur no earlier than in 15 years," the Skolkovo Vice President added.