Imagine this: you’re lying on an operating table undergoing liposuction. Moments later, the fat that was removed from your body is placed inside a 3-D printer and printed into a new shape that your body needs – like a breast, if you’ve undergone a lumpectomy or mastectomy.

For years, Thomas Boland, Ph.D., director of biomedical engineering at The University of Texas at El Paso, has been developing technology that is capable of printing live human tissue.