There is an exciting breakthrough in area of 3D bioprinting, a 3D printing technology for fabricating biomedical parts that can be used to create replacement organs or other part parts, by University of New South Wales. The breakthrough here is the use of ceramic ink that will allow doctors to 3D print bones directly into a patient’s body.
The Australia university has developed a special ceramic ink that can be printed with live cells into a cavity of a bone that has been removed or destroyed. According to Digital Trends, this technique “can create a construct that accurately mimics the physical and biological attributes of native bone.” So, far the research team has been able to print small bone structures.
Moving forward, further development will involved trials on small animals to determine if this technology can be used to heal large-sized wounds. Long story short, the future of reconstruction surgery relating to bones is looking very promising.
You can learn more about this technology in the video below and in an article on Digital Trends as well as on IEEE Spectrum.
Images: YouTube (UNSW).
Source: Digital Trends.