This insertable 3D printer will repair tissue damage from the inside

Researchers at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, have developed a versatile 3D bioprinter that may layer natural materials immediately onto organs or tissue. Unlike different bioprinting approaches, this technique would solely be minimally invasive, maybe serving to to keep away from main surgical procedures or the removing of organs. It feels like the future — no less than in idea — however the analysis staff warns it’s nonetheless 5 to seven years away from human testing.

The printer, dubbed F3DB, has a mushy robotic arm that may assemble biomaterials with residing cells onto broken inside organs or tissues. Its snake-like versatile physique would enter the physique by the mouth or anus, with a pilot / surgeon guiding it towards the injured space utilizing hand gestures. In addition, it has jets that may spray water onto the goal space, and its printing nozzle can double as an electrical scalpel. The staff hopes its multifunctional strategy may sometime be an all-in-one device (incising, cleansing and printing) for minimally invasive operations.

The F3DB’s robotic arm makes use of three soft-fabric-bellow actuators utilizing a hydraulic system composed of “DC-motor-driven syringes that pump water to the actuators,” as summarized by IEEE Spectrum. Its arm and versatile printing head can every transfer in three levels of freedom (DOFs), much like desktop 3D printers. In addition, it features a versatile miniature digital camera to let the operator view the job in actual time.

The analysis staff ran its first lab checks on the machine utilizing non-biomaterials: chocolate and liquid silicone. They later examined it on a pig’s kidney earlier than lastly shifting onto biomaterials printed onto a glass floor in a man-made colon. “We saw the cells grow every day and increase by four times on day seven, the last day of the experiment,” stated Thanh Nho Do, co-leader of the staff and Senior Lecturer at UNSW’s Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering. “The results show the F3DB has strong potential to be developed into an all-in-one endoscopic tool for endoscopic submucosal dissection procedures.”

The staff believes the machine is brimming with potential, however additional testing will be essential to convey it into the actual world. The subsequent steps would come with learning its use on animals and, finally, people; Do believes that’s about 5 to seven years away. But, in response to Ibrahim Ozbolat, professor of engineering science and mechanics at Pennsylvania State University, “commercialization can only be a matter of time.”