3D Printer Creates Living Human Body Parts

A medical breakthrough could one day save thousands of lives, and help many more.

Using a sophisticated 3D printer, a team of researchers at the Wake Forest University Institute for Regenerative Medicine has created living human body parts, including ears, muscles and jawbones.

"I am so excited that there is another option for all those people waiting for transplants," said Patricia Niles, president and CEO of Southwest Transplant Alliance in Dallas, the country's third largest organ procurement organization.

Right now, 13,000 people in Texas are waiting for organ transplants.

The Wake Forest team is now working on printing livers, lung and kidney tissue.

"I am hoping that someday it will put me out of business and it will be so successful that it will end the wait," said Niles.

"I think that we're about a decade away from having it turn out to be the true answer, and I would hope that everyone in the meantime would still sign up to be an organ donor," Niles added.