by John Anthony Hartman on July 2, 2010
In this newly interconnected world, publishing continues to be the primary source for new intellectual properties from movies to television to videogames. From our books emerge rich worlds, iconic characters, epic storylines and histories that lend themselves to an array of lucrative media extensions. How can editors and publishers leverage these assets to revive, strengthen and empower our industry? How can we better partner with the visionaries of the future, adapt to new delivery technologies, and earn a greater share in the storyworld franchises we are struggling to build? The answer is, we must evolve!
In this keynote seminar Jeff Gomez, CEO of Starlight Runner and one of the world’s leading producers of global transmedia properties, will lay the groundwork toward developing methods, tools and business models that will generate new paradigms for publishers large and small.
This is a great piece from Jeff Gomez of Starlight Runner
Posted via email from Transmedia
by John Anthony Hartman on May 15, 2010
REPRINT – Originally aired December 2005
You are lying on the operating table waiting for you heart replacement surgery and a strange sound lulls you too sleep as the anesthesia kicks in. (dot matrix printer sound) An amazing leap in tissue engineering is in the works. The ability to actually print out living tissue, blood vessels and organs utilizing a biodegradable paper with an ink that is full of cells. These are stacked into 3D objects like vessels and when the paper breaks down the cells are left in tacked to form the needed replacement part. This paper has been developed with various elements including extracts from seaweed, collagen but the most promising seems to be molecular chains of sugar. “The cells are mixed in with the gel and put into a standard inkjet printer cartridge. The machine then spits out a gel sheet embedded with cellular dots containing a minuscule amount — about 1 microliter each.” (http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20051114/organprinter_tec.html)
The paper acts as the framework to hold the cells together while the cells fuse together forming the final tissue structure that is desired. This process takes advantage of the natural ability of cells to repair tissue to create these structures.
Even though it can take just a few minutes to print out the sheets of bio-paper it takes weeks for the paper to break down and the natural processes of cellular growth to occur. The process starts with the blue print of the tissue to be created is created. Then the bioink is printed out in sheets that are stacked together to form the frame work. As the paper is eaten away or biodegrades the cellular fusion occurs creating the final tissue structure based off the original blue print.
The National Science Foundation is putting a lot of weight behind this process and in fact a new field of Bio-Manufacturing is being discussed at work shops and conferences all around the world. Workshops focusing on solid freeform fabrication, bio-coating, microfabrication, novel fabrication processes for cell and organ printing, and computer-aided tissue engineering were held in China last summer.
If you take this technique and look at the new 3D printers that are being developed the possibility to print 3D tissue or organ structures when we need them. Add to that the ability to use our own genetic structures in this process and the risk of our bodies rejecting these new organs could be a non-factor.
We are about 3-10 years out from this technology being implemented in the mass market but burn victims may soon be able to have skin printed or doctors may be able to use small tissue patches instead of sutures in the short term. Longer term the possibilities are staggering. Creating new skin, kidneys, livers, hearts arteries, veins etc. maybe even one day brains? Think of the future scenario mentioned at the beginning of this show. You have massive damage or a genetic defect to your heart and need a replacement. Your doctor takes the appropriate genetic samples brings up his computer and the blue print for a heart. He loads the genetic material into the bioink and prints you out a new heart.
The new Bio-Manufacturing industry will surly become a multi-billion dollar enterprise with vats of bioink and reams of bio-paper ready for transport to your local hospital. Maybe even a home version of the printer for those minor cuts and scrapes that we deal with in the course of our lives and you thought ink cartridges were expensive now. Just wait until your HMO has to cover this prescription ink and you have a co-pay every time you need to refill you printer.
NSF – http://www.nsf.gov/index.jsp
2005 FIBR Awards – http://nsf.gov/news/special_reports/fibr/awards.jsp
Printing Organs on Demand -http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,69701,00.html
New Paper Advances Organ Printing – http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20051114/organprinter_tec.html
Organ Printing at University of Missouri – http://organprint.missouri.edu/
3D Printers – http://www.zcorp.com/
