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The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Production in Innovation Economy (PIE) commission isn’t satisfied with how the United States is commercializing innovation and supporting manufacturing. Although America still has deep reserves of innovation capacity, decades of decline in our manufacturing base have made it difficult for companies to bring new products and technologies to market.
At September conference, the PIE commission summarized its findings, offered recommendations, and asked tough questions that require answers from more than just manufacturers. After collecting data and conducting hundreds of interviews with industry leaders, MIT faculty members explained how the U.S. can turn its strengths in science and research into businesses, products, and jobs.

In my blog: Additive Manufacturing – A new tool in the toolbox, part 5, I discussed several bio-3-D Printing projects, like skin, and I mentioned Organovo. It is a California company that was pioneering the 3-D Printing of organ tissue, with an eye toward actually printing organs on demand. They have had excellent results of late, actually printing functional liver tissue. The liver tissue, created using actual cells from donated human livers, is created by printing each type of liver cell, as well as vascular cells in a hex pattern, and providing nutrients so that the cells “grow” as they would in a human liver, to form the liver tissue structure, as well as replicate the liver functions.