3D Printer Builds Living Tissue – Printed Muscle!

The custom-built machine is able to print materials that share several of the properties of living tissues and can perform some cellular functions.

Researchers say this could be used as the building blocks for delivering drugs to places they are needed, or to replace or repair damaged human tissue.

“We have created a scalable way of producing a new type of soft material. The printed structures could in principle employ much of the biological machinery that enables the sophisticated behaviour of living cells and tissues.”

The droplet networks remain stable for weeks and can be designed to fold themselves into different shapes after printing.

This means a flat shape that looks like the petals of a flower can be programmed to fold in on itself to create a hollow ball.

Similar to muscle movement, the folding is powered by osmolarity differences that cause water transfer between individual droplets. Osmolarity is the measure of solute concentration.