Let’s talk future timeline. What can we reasonably expect these next couple of decades?

Futurist and current head of engineering at Google, Ray Kurzweil believes the 2020’s will be the roaring decade for bioprinting.

“We can already experimentally print out organs by printing a biodegradable scaffolding and then populating it with a patient’s own stem cells, all with a 3D printer. By the early 2020s, this will reach clinical practice.” – Kurzweil on CNN
If this is the case, and I tend to believe it is, what components of the process will require substantial improvements? I’ve identified the following:

1. The ability to model an organ, including its vascular architecture. This requires improvements in Big Data management, analysis, and visualization. With something as complex as biology, it’s petabytes we’re talking about.

2. Refined isolation and differentiation of stem cells into organ-specific cells. Stem cells promote growth and rejuvenation of surrounding cells, They can also become specialized cells themselves. We can have them do this in smaller quantities quite efficiently. We need them to do this in the trillions.

3. Even more precise 3d Printing technology, at the nano-scale.

4. A complex process for bioprinting that can auto-correct as it proceeds. Currently, adding functional cells and engineering  stem cells, are two different processes. They would need to be combined and subjected to the same feedback loop.

5. Better Incubation technology, perhaps even incubation integrated right into the printing process. This is would ensure that the organ you’re fabricating behaves as if its within a body when it is, in fact, incomplete.

As you can see, the refinement of 3d-Printing encompasses several disciplines including, Data Sciences, Computer/Software Science, Robotics, Materials Science, Stem Cell Science,  Imaging Technology, and Nanotechnology.