Bioprinting
In a state-of-the-art clean room, a scientist clad in a full-body containment suit, a hair net and blue gloves is preparing some printing cartridges—filled not with ink but a viscous milky liquid. Next to her sits a computer connected to a machine that resembles a large ice-cream dispenser, except that each of its two nozzles is made of a syringe with a long needle. Once the scientist clicks on the “run program” button, the needles extrude not a vanilla or chocolate-flavoured treat, but a paste of living cells. These bioinks are deposited in precise layers on top of each other and interspersed with a gel that forms a temporary mould around the cells.
Forty minutes later, the task is finished. Depending on the choice of bioink and printing pattern, the result could have been any number of three-dimensional biological structures. In this case, it is a strand of living lung tissue about 4cm in length and containing about 50m cells.
This offshoot of 3-D printing aims to allow scientists and medical researchers to build an organ, layer by layer, using scanners and printers traditionally reserved for auto design, model building and product prototyping.
Forty minutes later, the task is finished. Depending on the choice of bioink and printing pattern, the result could have been any number of three-dimensional biological structures. In this case, it is a strand of living lung tissue about 4cm in length and containing about 50m cells.
This offshoot of 3-D printing aims to allow scientists and medical researchers to build an organ, layer by layer, using scanners and printers traditionally reserved for auto design, model building and product prototyping.