Scientists Develop 3D Printer That Produces Artificial Cartilage

[Mark]

Scientists Develop 3D Printer That Produces Artificial Cartilage

A new hybrid printer has simplified the process of making implantable cartilage, researchers from Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine reported in the journal Biofabrication.

The authors explained they have achieved a major breakthrough in the printing of 3D tissue. With their system, cartilage is "printed".

The printer was used to make cartilage constructs which could eventually be implanted into specific areas of injured patients, such as joints, to help regrow cartilage.

They created a printer hybrid which is a combination of two low-cost fabrication techniques:
An electrospinning machine
An ink jet printer

Their material is stronger and harder wearing than other kinds of artificial cartilage

rest: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/253140.php

[Kilika]

There's a bit of a revolution taking place with these "3d printers" going on. Take a look at YouTube at all the videos of people making them. One group has even managed to make a printer from 3d printed parts, in effect self-replication.

The big thing about them is that they are cheap to make, and can make just about anything within the size of the printer "bed" area. They use a type of plastic, but are rather slow for now, so since they are cheap, people are amking multiple units to speed up the manufacturing process.

The downside is that now we have a bunch of people making silly plastic trinkets off these things, but then it's still in the early stages so of course people are still like kids in a candy store with their new-found toy. For now, they are great for "rapid-prototyping" of parts, proof-in-concept stuff, and of course all kinds of mini idols of all types.

It's even been taken to the level of a company is developing a 3d printer for building concrete houses with a huge printer. Works the same way, just spits out a concrete mixture instead of plastic. And another is working on a metal printer for fabricating steele type products using a welder head instead of nozzles that emit the plastic. Again, no reason why it wouldn't work as I see it. It's known that a weld is much stronger than the raw steel that is welded.

Interesting technology.

[Mark]

Staples to offer 3D printing abroad

   
Framingham-based Staples will offer full-color 3D printing in stores in Netherlands and Belgium starting in the first quarter next year, offering an accessible option for those looking to make their digital 3D doodles a reality.

http://www.boston.com/business/innovation/blogs/inside-the-hive/2012/11/30/staples-offer-printing-abroad/yIuqYQDXx7nGNHkoAXYdKN/blog.html

hopefully this will come here soon. I have an old toy that im missing a piece too, and a 3d printer would be perfect in making it. 

[Kilika]

You can build your own printer if you want. MANY videos on the topic on YouTube. Pretty cheap too, or you can buy one from several people that build them. It's great for things like that, missing small parts for toys, prototyping, etc. Only drawback is that they don't work fast, so a small part can take a couple hours to "print".

I suspect that Staples will get overrun with orders, seeing they don't work so fast, or they plan on having several units working at a time. But this is the first unit I've heard of that uses paper. That's a new one, and not what hobbiest can build obviously.

[Mark]

Can you build a moonbase with a 3D printer?

Summary: The European Space Agency is carrying out tests to find out if it is possible to build structures on the moon for human habitation with a 3D printer.

The European Space Agency (ESA) is assessing whether it is possible to build a lunar base from materials found on the moon using a 3D printer .

3D printers are used to create objects by adding materials layer by layer in a process that is referred to as 'additive manufacturing'.

"3D printing in space would work the same way as on Earth," ESA project leader, Laurent Pambaguian, told ZDNet on Thursday.

The ESA will work with architects Foster + Partners to test the feasibility of 3D printing from lunar soil, also known as regolith.

The collaboration envisages using a 3D printer to apply lunar soil as a stone-like protective shell around the outside of an inflatable dome, which would be made on Earth and carried to the moon in a rocket.

The protective layer could protect human habitants from meteorites, gamma rays and extreme temperatures.


The base would be coated in lunar soil. Image: ESA
The ESA created a 1.5-tonne block on Earth with a 3D printer provided by UK-based Monolite. The block — made from a mixture of terrestrial basaltic rock, magnesium oxide and a binding salt — was made with the D-Shape printer, which has been used in a variety of building projects.

"Our current printer builds at a rate of around 2m per hour, while our next-generation design should attain 3.5m per hour, completing an entire building in a week," said Monolite founder Enrico Dini, in a statement.

The conditions found on the moon aren't conducive to 3D printing, said Pambaguian, adding that the low gravity and extreme temperatures could affect the chemical reactions that take place in the 3D printing process. 

However, Italian space research firm Alta SpA and Pisa-based Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna University tested the printer to see if it could be used in a vacuum, and concluded that by inserting the 3D printer nozzle into the regolith layer, "the basic concept" could work.

Lunar bases are most likely to be built on the moon's poles because that is where temperatures are closest to those found on Earth.

"3D printing offers a potential means of facilitating lunar settlement with reduced logistics from Earth," said Scott Hovland of ESA's human spaceflight team in a statement on Thursday.

"The new possibilities this work opens up can then be considered by international space agencies as part of the current development of a common exploration strategy."

http://www.zdnet.com/can-you-build-a-moonbase-with-a-3d-printer-7000010680/

[Mark]

Man has 75% of skull replaced with 3-D printed implant

Some are fascinated with 3-D printing. One man can't get it out of his head.

An unidentified man had 75% of his skull replaced with a 3-D printed implant made by Oxford Performance Materials, a Connecticut company. The surgery this week was the first time a patient received an implant made specifically for him using 3-D printing technology.

The patient, whose name and injury OPM would not disclose, had his head scanned as part of the procedure.

The operation marks a big step in the advancement of 3-D printing technology, the company said. With 3-D printers, users can produce objects with a molding machine based on computer digital models.

PHOTOS: 10 tech companies to watch in 2013

The 3-D printing technology is ideal for implants custom-shaped to each patient's anatomy, the company said.

OPM President and Chief Executive Scott Defelice said 3-D printing allows any type of bone to be replaced with an implant. The technology can shorten surgery time, be less risky and cost less, he said.

"We believe our technology is highly disruptive, and it'll widely affect the orthopedic industry," he said.

The type of implant, which is formally known as the OsteoFab Patient Specific Cranial Device, is made out of PEKK, an ultra-high-performance polymer, according to the company's website.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved OPM's technology last month, clearing the way for the surgery.

OPM said it can make an implant within two weeks of getting a patient's scans, and believes that as many as 500 people per month could make use of the implants in the U.S. alone.

http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-skull-3dprinted-implant-75-20130308,0,7338719.story

[Mark]

the heart is one of the easiest organs to bioprint, we'll do it in a decade

A team of cardiovascular scientists has announced it will be able to 3D print a whole heart from the recipients' own cells within a decade.

"America put a man on the Moon in less than a decade. I said a full decade to provide some wiggle room," Stuart K Williams told Wired.co.uk.

Williams is heading up the hugely ambitious project as executive and scientific director of the Cardiovascular Innovation Institute at the University of Louisville. Throughout his prestigious career spanning four decades he has focused on researching surgical devices and bioengineering, and the idea for printing the heart whole from scratch was inspired by the work of one of the pioneers in both these fields -- Charles Lindbergh. Lindbergh might be best known for flying solo across the Atlantic and for the Crime of the Century (when his infant son was kidnapped and murdered) but he also created a glass perfusion pump with Alexia Carrel that would keep the human heart alive outside the body, paving the way for heart surgery. The pair also discussed regenerative medicine in their book The Culture of Organs.

rest: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-11/21/3d-printed-whole-heart

[Mark]

Living Tissue Emerges From 3-D PrinterLiving Tissue Emerges From 3-D Printer

 Harvard bioengineers say they have taken a big step toward using 3-D printers to make living tissue. They’ve made a machine with multiple printer heads that each extrudes a different biological building block to make complex tissue and blood vessels.

Their work represents a significant advance toward producing living medical models upon which drugs could be tested for safety and effectiveness.

It also advances the ball in the direction of an even bigger goal. Such a machine and the techniques being refined by researchers offer a glimpse of the early steps in a sci-fi healthcare scenario: One day surgeons might feed detailed CT scans of human body parts into a 3-D printer, manipulate them with design software, and produce healthy replacements for diseased or injured tissues or organs.

Read more below and click the gifs for explanations.

“This is the foundational step toward creating 3-D living tissue,” said Jennifer Lewis, senior author of the study published Feb. 18 in the journal Advanced Materials, in a university release.

The work, performed at Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, allows engineers to embed vascular networks into 3-D printed cellular agglomerations. These tiny vessels are critical to increasing the size of synthesized tissues because they provide a path for nutrients in and wastes out of cells laid down deep inside the printed products. Such networks mimic those found in natural tissues.

To make the tissue construct, Lewis’s team produced three “bio-inks” that are laid down by separate printer heads. One ink contains extracellular matrix, a complex mixture of water, proteins and carbohydrates that connects individual cells together to form tissues. Another contains extracellular matrix and living cells. A third used to make the vessels unusually melts as it cools so that researchers could chill the sample and suck out the ink to leave behind hollow tubes.

Lewis and her team can then seed the hollow tubes with endothelial cells, which grow into blood-vessel lining.

“Tissue engineers have been waiting for a method like this,” said the Wyss Institute’s Dr. Don Ingber. “The ability to form functional vascular networks in 3D tissues before they are implanted not only enables thicker tissues to be formed, it also raises the possibility of surgically connecting these networks to the natural vasculature to promote immediate perfusion of the implanted tissue, which should greatly increase their engraftment and survival.”

(Using their custom-built printer, the fugitive ink for the vasculature, and other biological inks containing extracellular matrix and human cells, the researchers printed a 3-D tissue construct.)

Source: http://txchnologist.com/post/77300046515/living-tissue-emerges-from-3-d-printer-harvard