Lifeboat Foundation

The annual 3D Bioprinting Conference is underway in the Netherlands today. While printing human body parts remains largely experimental, there are growing signs of commercial activity.

More progress for tissue engineering.

Skin is one of the easier starting points for 3D bioprinting, the application of rapid prototyping technologies to the construction of living tissue. Since skin is a thin tissue, the challenging issue of producing the intricate blood vessel networks needed to supply inner cells with oxygen and nutrients can be skipped. Thin tissue sections can be supported in a suitable nutrient bath, and after transplant, patient blood vessels will grow into the new skin. Further, there is a fairly large and long-established research and development industry involved in various forms of skin regeneration. Numerous forms of prototype skin-like tissues have been created over the years, lacking many of the features of the real thing, but still useful in the treatment of, for example, burn victims. Further, skin structure is by now well understood, and considerable progress has been made in deciphering the signals and environment needed for suitable cells to self-assemble into the correct arrangements. All told, it should not be a complete surprise to see significant progress emerge in this part of the field.

If you were to pick one emerging technology with the potential to have a massive positive impact on humanity in the coming years, there’s a good chance you’d go with 3D bioprinting.

The ability to use “bio-ink” to print out biomaterials ranging from heart tissues to bone and cartilage is incredibly exciting — although at present it’s not exactly the most user-friendly of tech.

One company hoping to change that is Cellink, which this week has announced the launch of its new Bio X printer, which it hopes will bring 3D bioprinting to a whole new audience.

Speculation on 3D printed tissue coming to humans sooner than we think is backed by new pre-clinical findings from 3D bioprinting company Organovo (NASDAQ: ONVO). Though it will still be 3 – 5 years before the U.S. based Organovo apply for clearance of their liver tissue, that is still sooner than perhaps even the FDA had in mind.

Pre-clinical trial data shows that 3D bioprinted liver tissue has been successfully planted into lab-bred mice. The human liver-cell tissue shows regular functionality and, at this stage, is being explored as a suitable patch for the organ.

There’s really no sector in the United States (or much of the world) that has been untouched by the development of advanced manufacturing technologies – and no one seems to be underestimating the importance of the further development of those technologies in order to keep the country competitive. To that end, in 2014 the government established the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI), more commonly known as Manufacturing USA.

The program brought together the industrial, academic, nonprofit and governmental sectors to establish a network of advanced manufacturing institutes for the purpose of accelerating new manufacturing technologies. President Obama proposed that the network grow to 45 institutes over the course of 10 years, and as of today, 12 have been established. The 12th, which was just announced by the Department of Defense, will be the Advanced Tissue Biofabrication (ATB) Manufacturing USA Institute, and will be led by the Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute (ARMI), based in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Continue reading “Advanced Tissue Biofabrication (ATB) Manufacturing USA Institute Will Focus on 3D Bioprinting Among Other Biofabrication Technologies” »

Improving Synbio through 4D.

A topical review in Biofabrication examines the potential of 4D bioprinting for creating biostructures with controllable motion.

The future for hospitals.

The new facility will build tissues like bones and cartilage for surgery patients as a first step toward printers in every operating room.

Bioprinting has been all over the news in the past several years with headline-worthy breakthroughs like printed human skin, synthetic bones, and even a fully functional mouse thyroid gland.

3D printing paved the way for bioprinting thanks to the printers’ unique ability to recreate human tissue structures; their software can be written to ‘stack’ cells in precise patterns as directed by a digital model, and they can produce tissue in just hours and make numerous identical samples.

Despite the progress in bioprinting, however, more complex human organs continue to elude scientists, and resting near the top of the ‘more complex’ list are the kidneys.

Continue reading “Bioprinting Is One Step Closer to Making a Human Kidney” »

After 3D-printing a mouse thyroid gland and successfully transplanting it last year, Russia’s 3D Bioprinting Solutions is aiming to make a human kidney by 2030, the company’s scientists told Sputnik.

© Sputnik/ Sergey Guneev

Continue reading “Stamping Out Disease: Russian Scientists Aim to Bioprint Human Kidneys By 2030” »