Over 100 million animals are killed in labs and classrooms in the U.S. in the name of science. That includes mice, rats and rabbits, which are needed to develop the early stages of new vaccines and medicines. What if we could change that?

Bio-ink and 3D printed human tissues have been in development for a couple of years. In the future, scientists may be used to printing living organs for those in need of it instead of using animals. Large 3D printers could one day replace the surgeon's table, printing layers of bone, tissue and skin onto the injured. We're still far off from that future, but we may be close to 3D printing human tissue.

3D printing human tissues for use in drug trials would eliminate the need for animal testing, but the better part of it is that we can get better scientific data from it. It would afford scientists the ability to test drugs on actual human systems.

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