Whether the goal is to find a treatment for COVID-19 or another disease, scientists often have to conduct preliminary tests on animals to determine whether the drug is safe or effective in people. It's not always a one-for-one comparison, but The New York Times reports there may be a new way around that step going forward: 3-D printing.
For example, Anthony Atala, the director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and his team are using 3-D printers to create tiny replicas of human organs, including miniature lungs and colons, which are particularly affected by the coronavirus. They send them overnight for testing at a biosafety lab at George Mason University.
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