BUFFALO, NY – It’s like science fiction: A machine pours into a shallow stick of moving yellow goo and pulls out what becomes a life-size hand.
But the seven-second video, which is built up from 19 minutes, is true.
The hand, which would take six hours to create using standard 3D printing methods, shows what Buffalo University engineers say is moving towards human and limb material. 3D – a biotechnology that could lose countless lives due to a shortage of donor organs. .
“The technology we developed is 10-50 times faster than the industry standard, and works with large sample sizes that have been very difficult to achieve in the past,” said Ruogang Zhao, PhD, co-author. -director of the study, associate professor of biochemical engineering.
The work is described in a study published on February 15 in the journal Advanced healthcare products.
It is based on a 3D printing method called stereolithography and jelly-like materials called hydrogels, which are used to create, among other things, diapers, contact lenses and scaffolds in print engineering.
This latter application is particularly useful in 3D printing, and is something that the research team devoted a large part of the effort to making the best use of the 3D printing method that was very fast and accurate.
“Our method allows fast printing of centimeter-sized hydrogel modules. It significantly reduces partial deformation and cell injury caused by the prolonged exposure to the environmental pressures you commonly see in printing methods. 3D conventional printing, ”says another co-study of the study’s lead author, Chi Zhou, PhD, an associate professor of industrial and systems engineering.
Researchers say the method is particularly suitable for printing cells with rooted blood vessel networks, a nascent technology that is expected to be a key component of the production of human and 3D organ printing .
###
First authors of the study include UB alumnus Nanditha Anandakrishnan, PhD, now a postgraduate researcher at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Hang Ye, PhD, now a research scientist at SprintRay Inc . Zipeng Guo, a current PhD candidate at Zhou’s lab, is also the first author.
UB has additional co-authors from the Department of Biomedical Engineering, which is a joint program of the Jacobs School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences; Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering; Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering; and the Department of Medicine at Jacobs School.
Other study co-authors are from VA Western New York Healthcare System; Department of Stress Cell Biology at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center; and the Department of Biomedical and Chemical Engineering at Syracuse University.
The work was supported by funding from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering of the National Institutes of Health. Additional funding was provided by the UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.
Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! they are not responsible for the accuracy of press releases posted to EurekAlert! by sending institutions or for using any information through the EurekAlert system.