How I got here?

I've always been interested in both the medical field and in technology. My passion for both is so high that I can never decide between the two. A few years ago, I stumbled upon a biotechnology class in my school and I fell in love with it all. Since then, I have been looking into biotechnology outside of the classroom. One day I came across 3-D bioprinting and my interest was instantly peeked. I read about printing skin, hearts, lungs, ears, and even brains. I found it so cool that we could possibly print all the organs which we need right in a lab. When I was thinking about my project for AP Research, I knew I wanted to do something related to science. My original idea was to 3-D print with bones as many amputees would benefit from the development of bone printing. The only issue was that I was a high school student and I only have access to so much. It's not as if I can cure in our lab, right? But regardless I stuck to looking at different 3-D bioprinting areas. I looked at skin, but skin printing takes many materials all of which are extremely expensive and very fragile to handle. I also wasn't sure if I could print skin with the type of 3-D printer I have at school. So, after that I came to arteries and I looked into them. I found that it would only take a simple gel to create them and I could later add cells to them, to let them "regenerate" in a sense. I also found out that coronary artery disease was the third leading cause for death in world. I looked into the treatments for it and found that there were not many long-term solutions as all of them at some point would fail. I've had a few of my family members suffer from coronary artery disease as well, which compelled me even more to look into a solution for the disease. I later connected coronary artery disease and 3-D bioprinting together and realized that there is a potential solution. I can just make an artery! Sounds impossible, but I know that it can be done one day and I want nothing more than to be in the process myself. I hope you all enjoy watching my journey through this!