A group of biomedical engineers from Jhpiego and Momo Scientific have developed a device designed to fight cervical cancer. Cervical cancer is responsible for about 275,000 deathseach year, with most of the deaths occurring in developing countries. The new device, called a “CryoPop,” was designed in a CAD program and prototyped on a 3D printer.
Scientists have developed a method of 3D printing new skin cells onto burn wounds at Wake Forest University’s Military Research Center. The method is far superior to traditional skin grafts because regular grafts require skin from a donor site somewhere on the patient’s body. Taking skin from a donor site is painful and sometimes the patients do not even have enough unburned skin to transplant.
Researchers at the Nemours / Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children have created something heartwarming; a 3D printed exoskeleton that allows a two year old girl named Emma to move her arms for the first time.
When Emma was born she was diagnosed with Arthrogryposis Multiplex Congenita (AMC). Children with AMC are frequently unable to move their arms on their own and the condition does not get better over time. Emma could not raise her arms to hug her parents, hold a crayon or play with a toy.
A 37-year-old Malaysian man has now joined the growing number of people worldwide whose lives have been significantly improved by 3D Printing. Suffering from a badly healed broken arm, which he fractured at a young age, he developed a bony deformity in the left forearm. This led to stiffness and pain when using his left hand and he was left unable to perform tasks as simple as picking up a plate or opening a door. Now, thanks to Dr. Ranjit Singh Gill from Pantai Hospital Kuala Lumpur and the 3D Printing experts at Materialise, he can look forward to a fully functional future once more. Using virtual surgical planning and 3D printed surgical guides, for the first time in Malaysia, this complex case turned into a surgical reality on June 4th 2013.
3D printers may hold the key to successfully producing the first transplantable kidneys for humans. Before 3D bioprinting was widely available, researchers were using pig kidneys as scaffolds to hold human kidney cells. They would take a pig kidney and wash away the internal cells, leaving the basic structure behind. Then, they would use human or animal cells to fill the scaffold back up. This process has never resulted in a kidney that could be successfully transplanted into a human.
After last week life saving 3D printed device, medical 3D printing draws once again attention. A high school student in New Jersey, Ian McHale, just created a finger splint that can be produced with a 3D printer. The goal behind this initiative is to show that 3D printing can help solve concrete problems with minimal ressources.
Losing a limb is one of the most traumatic experiences a person can go through. Unfortunately, the reality of the aftershock can be even worse. As amputees are forced to deal with both the psychological and the physical reality of their situations, it creates stress, depression and anger. San Francisco-based company Bespoke Innovations has developed an unusual solution aimed at helping amputees erase the awkwardness that comes with wearing prosthetic limbs.
The BIOFABRIS is a National Institute of S&T in Biomanufacturing of multidisciplinary,
located at the Chemical Engineering Campus of UNICAMP, character that aims to integrate computational tools, synthesis and development of new biomaterials and application of engineering techniques to obtain biomedical devices (prostheses and orthopedic orthoses) and substitutes for live biological tissues or defective or missing human organs.