This is an amazing idea, but the economics really don't check out as stated. Home printers caught on because for a brief flash of history, people needed to bridge the gap between digital and paper based systems often enough to warrant owning a device for that specific purpose. People buy cars because they need a flexible transportation option that they can use every single day. Even though these investments are expensive, the benefits outweigh(ed) the costs. Nowadays, it's not uncommon for your situation to be that printing things is a rare need, and on those rare occasions you can just go to a place like FedEx. As usage becomes more occasional, the need for decentralization drops.
And that is the case with a vaccine printer. This is something you would use maybe once or twice a year, and then it would just sit there. For a piece of equipment that will be expensive initially and then probably require regular maintenance, that simply doesn't make sense.
But distribution and availability of vaccines are problems, and this technology could be a solution to them. You wouldn't have the printer in your home, though. That's crazy talk. Instead, your doctor or clinic would have the printer. Instead of paying based on the scarcity of the vaccine and the difficulties of shipping them around the country, you'd be paying for the licensing of the vaccine and the maintenance of the printer (which makes way more sense if spread across hundreds of patients). Assuming old business models don't die too hard, this would mean higher availability and lower costs.
It's a DNA printer. It can print vaccines. In the same way your printer at home can print a recipe. But the printer can also print a book, or a google map, or a photo. The DNA printer can print DNA - for vaccines, for antibiotics, for insulin, for HGH, for fluorescent proteins, for enzymes, for biological circuits, for viruses...
This is much bigger than another dust-collecting machine in everyones home. The "vaccine printer for everyone" is just what you write on the grant application form to get the simpletons at the government excited.
The availability of an affordable vaccine biofactory implies general manufacture of complex molecules.
It's science fiction on the order of fusion power plants or hard AI: there's nothing that we know will prevent it, but our technology level is just not there yet, nor can we make good estimates of when it will be.
I will be happy when it shows up, but I wouldn't expect it anytime soon.
I do it in the laboratory every day. It requires the sterility of a good commercial kitchen. It requires some sugar, some water and some vitamins. It requires some very specific conditions and specific strands of DNA to get out exactly what you want. And often you want a purified product. But honestly, your Marzocco espresso machine is essentially the same tool (FPLC) we use to purify proteins in the lab.
Fusion doesn't really happen in your kitchen. Biofactories happen in your yoghurt if you do nothing more than leave it on the counter.
We can already assemble arbitrary DNA up to a few kilobases long, and that tech is improving rapidly. So I don't think Venter's biological printer is as far away you think.
It doesn't require general manufacture of complex molecules -- just general manufacture of proteins. And the whole reason life is built on proteins is that proteins are relatively easy to reliably manufacture.
If we were talking about a "Diamond Age"-style nanoassembler, I'd agree with you. But we already have biological assemblers all around us, it's just a question of continuing to increase our degree control over them.
I think when it does show up, no one will be happy. People are already running around like chicken with its head cut off because someone managed to 3d-print the lower receiver of an AR-15, fearing regulatory pressure. There are hour-long talks on the topic of computational freedom.
Now imagine a world where you can print molecules. It's either one where theres no freedom left or complete and total freedom.
nope - because once you have the (open-sourced) recipes it will be QUITE cheap. Do you really think your Phusion master mix is expensive because it has a lot of material in it? You do realize you can purify your own polymerase for thousandths if not millionths of the cost of which you buy it from Invitrogen.
Big pharma would be extremely happy if the FDA ceased to exist. It would make them more cost-competitive with homeopaths and supplement makers, because they would also be able to stop all of their testing and quality control.
And that is the case with a vaccine printer. This is something you would use maybe once or twice a year, and then it would just sit there. For a piece of equipment that will be expensive initially and then probably require regular maintenance, that simply doesn't make sense.
But distribution and availability of vaccines are problems, and this technology could be a solution to them. You wouldn't have the printer in your home, though. That's crazy talk. Instead, your doctor or clinic would have the printer. Instead of paying based on the scarcity of the vaccine and the difficulties of shipping them around the country, you'd be paying for the licensing of the vaccine and the maintenance of the printer (which makes way more sense if spread across hundreds of patients). Assuming old business models don't die too hard, this would mean higher availability and lower costs.