Ever since Mary’ Shelley’s novel of Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus was published in 1818 the idea of human life created from inanimate flesh has held a fascination for the imagination, and recounted in innumerable fictional versions and speculations. In her novel, science student Victor Frankenstein sutured together parts of dead bodies and in some fashion she never really explained, infused the connected parts with a life force, and tragedy ensued.

When the famous Universal movies were made with Boris Karloff stalking villages, a pair of bolts were added to the creature’s neck and the life force became electricity from lightning. The idea of animating flesh with electricity was suggested by Galvani’s experiments showing that electricity could make a frog’s legs jerk as if alive. However, the essential dilemma of animating a sewn together human body is the evidence of paralysis. Nerve tissues of the spinal column and other nervous systems once severed do not naturally begin to work when put together, so reanimation of sewn together parts has a problem.

This will be tested as we advance in the “miracles” of bio-engineering as we go forward from the 200^th anniversary of the Frankenstein story. A stunning advance is just now beginning with human bio-printing, using the same technology as today’s inkjet printers.

3D printing came into common awareness when someone was able to make a gun, printed from plastic. 3D printing is now revolutionizing the manufacture of a whole range of items in plastic, steel, and other materials. Back in 2002, a Professor named Makoto Nakamura discovered that the drops of ink ejected in an inkjet printer were about the same size as human cells. Six years later he had a working model “Bio-Printer” that could “print” a synthetic blood vessel bio-tubing. The process uses human cells laid down in layer after layer with the print head moving up and down or left and right to place the cell where needed for the organ form being created. And in the process, a unique discovery was made, the cells, when added, seem to know what function they are supposed to have when joined with others in the organ.

Biogen companies Organovo and Invetech have joined to create the first commercial bio-printer, the NovoGen MMX. The printer is loaded with “bio-ink” spheroids that contain tens of thousands of cells. The machine then lays down a single layer of a water-based bio-paper made from hydrogels, collagen or gelatin. The globules are injected into this material. Then as the spheroids fuse together, the bio-paper dissolves away leaving a manufactured body part or basic tissue.

The bio-printed organs are made using the patient’s own cells so that rejection is no longer a problem. And the technology tantalizingly suggests that Frankenstein may soon be here, not dug up from graves but built, layer by layer and organ by organ. Of course, it will be some time yet before enough organs could be printed to create a full being. And the Frankenstein dilemma still remains – how to animate this tissue. Well, this may be solved by advances in Nano-technology.

Nanobots have attracted the attention of science-fiction film-makers, using little crawling mini things which eat flesh or metal or melt the brains of evil controlling super computers. But Nano-technology in the bio space maybe able to create controllable chemical receptors to join nerve cells. This may soon advance the repair of nervous system tissue to overcome permanent paralysis. This same technology may advance to the point where bio-printed organs may be joined in an animated being. Certainly still the stuff of science-fiction in a future world, but maybe in time for a sequel to Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s book, “Frankenstein 2085”.