3D Bioprinting

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I haven’t written about 3D printing in a while. It’s not because nothing is going on in that arena. After all, HP announced that it will be offering a consumer 3D printer this year. (It is 2015 by now.) It’s because I have been involved in a slew of other projects and have lost touch with the groups continuing to work in this field.

And, while it’s still true that 3D printing will let us make a slew of products, we still haven’t hurdled the ability to handle multiple substrates (materials to be printed) in one item- or to have them “perfectly” finished.

But, Dr. Michael McAlpine of Princeton, may have afforded us the opportunity to yield a new class of products via 3D printing. His research group is producing electronic circuits- using semiconductors and other substrates- including the ability for these components to be biocompatible.

This required the group to produce their own printer, since most of the devices available are devoted to plastic materials. Other materials would “jam” the “ink” cartridges. (Remember that I told you that a lot of these 3D printers are akin to color inkjets- where each “canister” or “ink-jet” contains a different material or one with a different colored item.) The group wants to use semiconductors- because they are critical for information- processing circuitry (as well as light emission and detection), which means their printers also needed much better resolution than most (on the level of millimeters) pf the devices already available.

They’ve already produced a “bio-electronic” ear. Not made of plastics- but actual living cells- with a matrix of hydrogel to keep it “spongy”. On top of that, the researchers incorporated silver nanoparticles (conductive ink) in an electrical coil- so that radio signals would be received. (The video above can explain more about this “superhuman” dog ear.)

They’ve incorporated quantum dots. What’s that? These are tiny particles or nanocrystals, of a 2-10 nanometer diameter, that emit different colors of light when subjected to electrical current.

And, metals for the electrical leads and contacts. And polymers (plastics). And silicone for the inner matrix to hold the components together.

Most importantly, they perfected the concept so the “inks” don’t blend (bleed) into one another. This required choosing solvents that don’t mix- thereby keeping each component separate.

This let them make a 3D cube of LEDS, stacked two by two by two. And, they printed LEDs on a contact lens- leaving the contact lens to assume a normal shape.

This is one group to watch…

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