SAN DIEGO -- A local biotech company has developed a machine with the ability to print tissue needed to build organs.

While it might look like any other lab in San Diego's biotech corridor in Sorrento Valley, the projects being worked on at Organovo could be life-changing for millions of people.

"Basically, I think we've put in one of the building blocks that will help change the transplant industry," said Richard Grant, vice president of Invetech.

Grant is referring to a special machine his company helped design for Organovo. The machine acts like a copy machine, but it prints cells to make human tissue and eventually organs.

"It seems like science fiction but really we're relying on what cells do inherently," said Keith Murphy, CEO of Organovo.

A cell is taken from a patient and it is then place in a Petri dish where the cells can grow to a sufficient number. For example, 10,000 cells are needed to make something like a small blood vessel. The machine then places the cells with laser-like precision in a 3-D matrix, where they fuse together to form the tissue.

The company believes science like this could be a great help for people with heart problems in need of a bypass or for patients in need of a kidney transplant, thus eliminating the need for a donor.

"We've got to really let the science lead us and see the progress, and eventually we can help those patients," said Murphy.

More of these types of machines are being built and will be distributed to universities this month.

The hope is that through sharing of the technology, more discoveries will be made and the process of this science will be advanced.