Is it science fiction when skin, bones, and organs can all be created with a 3D printer? Although 3D printing technology has been available for a few decades and has many utilities across industries, it’s only been in the last few years that organizations have been able to apply this innovative technology in the medical and biotech space. Companies are pushing the limits of science to provide solutions for many medical needs.
What are companies actually creating with their 3D printers? What will be their impact on improving healthcare and patient outcomes?
Skin
The University of Liverpool is currently developing synthetic skin, where through 3D camera technology and image processing, they hope can replicate a person’s real skin so that it appears natural, regardless of age, gender, or skin color. Meanwhile, scientists from the Laser Center Hannover in Germany utilized laser printing to create a skin substitute. The challenges with creating skin for patients such as burn victims is how to engineer the skin tissue so that it can mimic real skin and appear as it would in real life, with wrinkles, freckles, and other types of blemishes.
Organs
Organovo, a San Diego-based company, is one of the leading innovators of tissue engineering. In January 2014, they announced that they had delivered their first 3D Liver tissue through their 3D bioprinting technology. Later in 2014, they plan to release additional data regarding their 3D Kidney tissues and breast cancer tissues, currently in development. What their achievement signifies is that in the future, patients may not have to rely on long donor waiting lists for an organ transplant; an organ specific to a patient can be created.
Germany-based Fraunhofer Institute developed a method of creating artificial blood vessels from a 3D printer. The blood vessels were created from a composite of biomolecules and synthetic polymers. Currently, they’re not suitable for human transplantation yet, but this is the beginning of what can be created to solve vascular issues in the future.
Bones and Skulls
Bonus Biogroup, an Israeli biotechnology company, has developed an innovative technology to manufacture human bones, where the regenerated bones would then be used in orthopedic and dental bone transplantations. The process begins by extracting live fat from the patient through liposuction. Mesenchymal cells are produced from the fat tissue. A scaffolding of the patient’s bone, created with a 3D printer, is then seeded with the stem cells, and allowed to grow under laboratory conditions outside of the body. When the bone is ready, it is transplanted into the body. Using this technology, the company plans to develop joint replacements in the future.
Alternatively, Oxford Performance Materials, a company from South Windsor, CT, is manufacturing medical devices and implants not with human cells, but by creating implant parts with PEKK polymer. In 2013, their OsteoFab™ Patient Specific Cranial Device (OPSCD) was approved by the FDA for cranial implantation. “FDA clearance of this device marks the first approval for an additively manufactured polymer implant.” The company hopes to move beyond the cranium, developing processes for bones from other parts of the anatomy.
Are you excited about the promising usage of 3D printing in medicine? What other medical advances are taking advantage of the 3D printing technology? How will this impact patient care? What are the unforeseen ethical, political, and moral challenges of growing human parts? We will be discussing this more inside Sermo, please join us if you’re an M.D. or D.O.
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