Just after announcing the successful 3D printing of kidney cells, bioprinting firm Organovo has decided to add 3D printed skin to its portfolio of printable organ tissues. The company has signed a Research Collaboration Agreement with L’Oreal USA Products, Inc to 3D print skin models using their NovoGen Bioprinting Platform.
Israeli company Nano Dimension recently burst into the 3D printing world by offering the first working prototype of their 3D Printed Circuit Board (PCB) Printer at a special presentation in Tel Aviv and it’s called the Dragonfly 2020 3D printer.
Faith Lennox lost part of her left arm when she was just nine months old. Her body’s position at the time of birth restricted the flow of blood to her arm, causing irreversible damage.
3D printing has been aiding doctors prepare for numerous surgeries by providing highly-detailed, patient specific models to better inform surgeons before entering the operating room. As accurate as these models have been, some even including color-coded regions to illustrate various organs or problem areas, they have yet to fully replicate the texture of real human tissues. Japanese 3D printing firm Fasotec, previously covered on 3DPI and subsequently purchased by Stratasys, is changing that by creating highly realistic surgical models with 3D printing.
While AM in mechanical mass production (especially in the aerospace sector) is seeking larger build sizes, the opposite is true for the medical field. Here it will be the extremely small and complex parts that will drive the adoption of 3D printing technologies in mass production. One example is the Nerve Guidance Conduits (CNG) developed by a team of scientists through the use of a MicroStereolithography (MicroSLA or µSL) system.
We’ve covered many stories in which 3D printing has aided in the planning of surgeries, with patient-specific, 3D printed models cutting surgery time drastically by providing doctors with a detailed visual representation of the areas in which they are about to operate. Today, however, we report on the first time that the practice has been implemented in the risky procedure of separating conjoined twins.
Students at Brenham High School have, literally, given a hand to a two-year-old boy named Kaedon, The San Francisco Globe reports. Kaedon suffers from amniotic band syndrome, a syndrome caused by a fetus becoming entangled in fibrous string-like amniotic bands in the womb. As a result of this syndrome, Kaedon was born with his right hand not fully formed. When Kaedon’s mother, Jeannette Olson, heard that the local high school had a 3D printer, she decided to see if they could help her child.
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Mina Khan was born with a broken heart. Specifically, she had a large hole between her ventricles. This defect prevented the normal circulation of blood through her heart chambers and lungs, leaving the little girl constantly exhausted. Mina could not put on weight, and her hair would not grow. She needed a miracle, and the challenge to save her life was accepted by an innovative team of surgeons at St. Thomas Hospital in London, and a 3D printer.
Let it be known that a physical disability has never prevented the determined musician from pursuing their passion. My preferred example is history’s greatest guitarist, Django Reinhardt, who, after a fire paralyzed the third and fourth fingers on his left hand, used only his index and middle fingers to be one of the fastest, yet most elegant jazz guitarist the world has ever known.
Until now, several different groups of researchers have developed small masses of tissue as implants, but now they are trying to create a clear path to their actual use. In Japan, scientists have made progress towards using a 3D printer to fabricate custom-made skin, bones, and joints.
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.