3D bioprinting

Presently, if a patient is missing a section of bone, it has to be replaced with bone harvested from elsewhere in their body. A new cell-containing gel, however, could one day be 3D printed right into the injury, where it would then harden.

One of the challenges in 3D printing biological tissue lies in the fact that the cells may die before oxygen-delivering blood vessels grow into the material. Harvard scientists are addressing that issue, by adding algae to the mix.

Human knees are notoriously vulnerable to injury or wearing out with age, often culminating in the need for surgery. Now researchers have created new hybrid bioinks that can be used to 3D print structures to replace damaged cartilage in the knee.

Although we may think of 3D-printed items as being hard, they're actually often made from soft gels, as is the case with bioprinted body parts. A new system now allows such objects to be printed at a much smaller scale than ever before.

Although we're hearing more and more about 3D-bioprinted body parts, at least one challenge remains: getting oxygen to the cells in the printed tissue. A new type of "bioink," however, is claimed to be capable of doing just that.

Open wounds on the stomach wall can be serious if left untreated, sometimes requiring surgery. In the not-too-distant future, though, it's possible that a small robot could bioprint new cells onto such injuries … from inside the body.

Although we're hearing more about 3D-printed replacement body parts, those parts need to be implanted via large incisions. That may not always be the case, however, thanks to a new "bio-ink" that could allow parts to be printed within the body.

Corals serve as a host to algae, which produces sugars that the corals consume. Now, scientists have 3D-printed coral that's even more algae-friendly than its natural equivalent – it could help limit coral bleaching, and provide a source of biofuel.

When someone suffers a loss of skeletal muscle, it can be very difficult getting new muscle to grow in its place. A new handheld device is designed to help, however, by directly depositing scaffolding within the patient's body.

It certainly would be great if instead of having to be harvested from a patient's own body, permanent skin grafts could be 3D-printed as needed. Well, we may be getting closer to that point, as scientists have now bioprinted living skin complete with blood vessels.

American researchers have 3D-bioprinted a miniature human heart, using human cardiac cells.

New technology promises to make the 3D-bioprinting process quicker and thus more practical than ever.