human tissue like material from a 3D printer..

[sky otter]

Oxford University researchers create new 3D printed 'soft material' that could replace human tissue  Alt
By Joseph Volpe posted Apr 5th, 2013 at 2:18 PM 28

Water and fat -- those are the two primary building blocks Oxford University researchers have used to 3D print the droplet you see above. Sounds unremarkable until you consider its intended application as a human tissue replacement. By stringing together thousands of these so-called droplets (which measure about 50 microns across) using a custom-built 3D printer, the Oxford team believes it has engineered a "new type of material" that could eventually be used to ferry drugs throughout our internal systems to a specific target site, fill-in for damaged tissues or even mimic neural pathways via specially printed protein pores. The potential applications for medical science are impressive enough, but consider this additional benefit: since the droplets contain no genetic material, scientists can completely sidestep all the ethical red tape surrounding the alternative stem cell approach to artificial tissue. At present, the team's been able to string about 35,000 of the droplets together, but there's no real cap as to how large or even what type of networks can be made. If the money and equipment are willing, this Oxford team can make scifi dreams come true.

http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/05/oxford-university-researchers-create-3d-printed-human-tissue-replacement/

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Home / Blogs / Business / The Bulletin Follow this blog: RSS..3D printing used to create human tissue-like material
By Channtal Fleischfresser | April 5, 2013, 3:15 AM PDT


Photo: Oxford University/G Villar


A team of British scientists may have a medical breakthrough on their hands. The Oxford University-based group have used a custom-built 3D printer to create a material that resembles living tissue and could be used for medical purposes.

Made up of lipid films encapsulating thousands of connected water droplets, the material's structure is such that it can execute some functions of living cells. The hope is that it could be the first step in new technology that could be used to pass on drugs and eventually even replace damaged tissue. The results of their findings were published in the journal Science.

"We aren't trying to make materials that faithfully resemble tissues but rather structures that can carry out the functions of tissues," said Hagan Bayley, the Oxford Chemistry professor who headed the research.

Each water droplet currently measures 0.05 mm in diameter - about five times as big as living cells. But the researchers believe they could be made even smaller, and the material could take on different shapes as needed. "The droplets can be printed with protein pores to form pathways through the network that mimic nerves and are able to transmit electrical signals from one side of a network to the other," Bayley said.

The advantage of using synthetic materials to create artificial tissue is that they avoid the problems associated with other methods, including the use of stem cells. The use of additive manufacturing in bioengineering is gaining steam: in February, researchers at Cornell successfully created artificial human ears with the help of 3D printing.

See a video of the 3D printer in action here.


http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/bulletin/3d-printing-used-to-create-human-tissue-like-material/16804

[zorgon]

[deuem]

Ok, just what I need, more fat. Can I wait for the protien and water 3D patch kit.

ps, If they wish, I can supply them with all the fat cells they need..............I have enough lol

[zorgon]

Here we go...

[zorgon]

Use for 3-D Printers: Creating Internal Blood Vessels for Kidneys, Livers, Other Large Organs

To build large organs that work properly, researchers need to find a way to lace them with blood vessels

   The audiences at TED talks are used to being wowed as they learn about advances in technology. Even by TED standards, however, the 2011 presentation by Anthony Atala of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine was amazing. Unseen by the audience at first, various vials and nozzles hummed with mysterious activity behind Atala while he was on the stage. About two thirds of the way through the talk, a camera zoomed in on the device's internal armature and showed it weaving back and forth, depositing living cells grown in a laboratory culture layer by layer on a central platform, basing its activity on highly accurate three-dimensional digital renderings. The process, known as 3-D printing, resembles the operation of ink-jet printers but, in this case, instead of ink the printer uses a solution of living cells. In the end, Atala's machine produced, layer by layer, a life-size kidney made of human cells, much as a personal 3-D printer can spit out, say, a plastic replacement part for a coffeemaker.


This article was originally published with the title A Sweet Solution for Replacing Organs.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=new-use-3d-printing-blood-vessel-creation-kidney-liver-large-organs