A 3D Printed Jaw

This was bound to happen: a person receives a transplant of a major body part made specifically for them by 3D printing technology. 

 

In this case the body part was the lower jaw of an 83 year old woman from Europe, which had become infected and required removal. 3D scanning techniques captured the precise dimensions of the jaw and a replacement was produced using 3D printed powdered titanium.  

 

According to DePers, the process took only a few hours, while alternative methods would have taken days. The new jaw is heavier than a real jaw, being made of titanium, but is said to be quite usable. 

 

We think this is only the tip of a new branch of 3D printing, where all types of body parts, particularly bones, will be 3D printed to matching individual shapes. 

 

The best part of this story? The patient was able to speak and swallow a day after the surgery. 

 

Via DePers (Dutch) (Hat tip to Joe)

Image Credit: Erix!

Neurosurgeons Are 3D Printing

There's nothing like being able to hold something in your hand and inspect it. You can look from all angles close or far and can use your sense of touch to aid in understanding completely what you've got.

 

That's exactly the approach Hawaiian neurosurgeons at the Tripler Army Medical Centre are taking. They're able to plan their surgeries more easily and accurately. Another interesting capability is using the 3D model to explain the upcoming surgery to family members in a more meaningful way.  

 

Via Wired.UK

Engineering Organs?

Wake Forest researcher Dr. Anthony Atala recently spoke on CBC's science podcast Quirks and Quarks about his work in the almost unbelievable science of engineering organs. His team is actually able to manufacture several types of biological organs. While this is still at the research stage, it could lead to a future where replacement parts for humans are only a few weeks of printing and growing away. 

 

Atala describes the different techniques for producing organs and tissue, which sound very similar to issues in 3D printing. He says the simplest to produce is flat tissue, such as skin. More complex levels may be tubes, hollow and eventually "solid" organs where a full three dimensional manufacturing process must take place. 

 

While the simpler objects are made using basic scaffolds (which may in fact be 3D printed themselves), the more complex organs are likely to be 3D printed. The process will be quite familiar to 3D printing aficionados: a bucket of "free" cells are cultured and then fed as print material into a bio-compatible 3D printer. The printer lays out the cells and support material in the required pattern. Then after some days or weeks the cells naturally link together and become a true organ. It is likely with multiple print heads you'd be able to produce an organ with multiple types of cells. 

 

While this is still at the research stage, it could lead to a future where replacement parts for humans are only a few weeks of printing and growing away. 

 

Via CBC Quirks and Quarks

Probing Knut's 3D Brain

Berlin Zoo's most famous resident, the polar bear banned Knut, died suddenly this past March. Apparently the bear, famous for controversy surrounding the practice of humans raising bear cubs, had an infection that led to encephalitis and accidental drowning. 

 

While Knut is gone, his brain lives on. It's been captured in 3D by "some of the world's most advanced medical imaging machines", and researchers will be able to perform virtual inspections of the late bear's brain and skull. 

 

Fabbaloo readers will immediately realize that once a 3D model exists, it had better be printed. That's precisely what's happened here; researchers have printed Knut's skull on a 3D printer. 

 

Why all this attention? It seems to be that Knut became rather famous during his lifetime, generating massive increases in visitors to the Berlin Zoo. Once he departed, we think people would like to remember him. 

 

We're now wondering if there's a market for 3D prints of beloved deceased pets? 

 

Via Monsters and Critics and Wikipedia

Image Credit: Wikipedia

Laser Sintered Orthopedic Implants

Some of us require special orthopaedic implants to correct the scourge of "flat feet", and as such they must be custom-made to fit each person's foot. You might think this is a perfect candidate for 3D printing technology, which can produce customized implant shapes on demand. This is precisely what EOS has done with their new laser-sintered orthopaedic implants. Even better, their equipment can pump them out en masse. According to EOS:

 

Modern data preparation software in combination with laser-sintering can be used to create complex geometries, porous surfaces suitable for better osteointegration or lightweight structures to promote better patient comfort.

 

We're not quite sure what "osteointegration" is, but we sure like the look of these implants. 

Tissue Engineered

While there have been several experiments attempting to achieve the almost unbelievable feat of printing actual human organs, there has been a breakthrough development by researchers at Cornell. The title of their paper tells it all: "Direct Freeform Fabrication of Seeded Hydrogels in Arbitrary Geometries". Ok, maybe that's not entirely clear. Here's how we'd interpret this: they've invented a method of printing living cells in almost any shape. 

 

Previous experiments were able to produce complex shapes, but the approaches they used were not ideal: pre-printing a dissolvable scaffold on which to deposit the cell-seeded hydrogel, or perhaps injection molding. These approaches require additional steps and thus are less convenient. They also cannot provide variation in cell type or density during deposition or easily be used for in situ fabrication. 

 

The new approach uses 3D printing techniques to deposit pre-seeded, cross-linked alginate hydrogel in layers, thus capable of complex arbitrary shapes. The new material meant that no subsequent steps were required and less fuss is required during the printing process. 

 

The team's experiments using what is essentially a specialized 3D printer with a syringe print head proved the viability of the deposited cells. In other words, the printed cells not only survived, but successfully bonded together. 

 

We think this is a significant advance, and it may lead to a future where cells can be cultured, collected and then printed not only in the desired shape, but also directly on the spot where they need to be. 

 

Via Cornell and Cornell (PDF)

CNN Reports on 3D Printing Human Skin

A report today in CNN describes the incredible work being done to assist injured soldiers. While many types of injuries occur overseas, one of the most common is burned skin - evidently 5-20% of all combat injuries. A new initiative attempts to rebuild skin damaged in this way using 3D print technology.

 

The approach is to use a bioprinter adapted from common everyday inkjet technology to deposit various types of living cells in an appropriately shaped 3D array. Where does the feedstock come from? From the patient, of course. A sample is taken ahead of time, then separately cultured into a large quantity. This material then becomes the printable media for the process. The "skin" is printed directly onto the patient, and the cells naturally take hold and fuse together. 

 

Skin is just the start; the researchers believe they can adapt the technique to other types of living tissue, including human organs. We have no doubt of this, as 3D printing technology is incredibly versatile. We wonder whether anyone has considered the possibility of including non-organic material in such prints to provide enhancement beyond normal human abilities? 

 

Via CNN (Hat tip to Linda)

Human Organ Printing

We ran across a fascinating video showing a bio-printing concept being researched at the Biophysics Lab of the University of Missouri-Columbia. According to Dr. Gabor Forgacs, they will be able to replicate human parts by creating new organs cell by cell in a manner similar to everyday 3D printing. 

Here's how it works:

 

• "Spheroidal cell aggregates" of "bioink" are the basic print material. These are, in fact, live cells. The ink operates like a liquid, but can link together to form shapes
• "Biopaper", a biocompatible cell-extracellular matrix of hydrogels are used as support material
• A 3D-printer-like device first prints a layer of Biopaper
• The printer then deposits a layer of Bioink in the desired configuration
• The bioink particles join together naturally and fuse into living tissue
• Subsequent layers of biopaper and bioink gradually build up the object into usable human tissue or even organs
• The biopaper eventually dissolves leaving just the desired tissue

  

Dr. Forgacs says we cannot control every detail, but nature self organizes the tissue into the final organ. The cells would be sourced and cultured from the patient, so there is little risk of tissue rejection.

 

Dr Forgacs proposes printing sheets of cardiac tissue to attach to damaged heart as a possible scenario. Could we replace a liver or a pair of lungs? He says: "Don't be a heavy smoker!" But he also thinks it's possible this may happen within our lifetimes. 

 

Unless, of course, you're a heavy smoker. 

 

Via YouTube. OrganPrint and ForgacsLab