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See how technology built for @Space_Station could advance humanity’s access to nutrition. #SpaceStation20th

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a new method of 3D-printing gels and other soft materials. Published in a new paper, it has the potential to create complex structures with nanometer-scale precision. Because many gels are compatible with living cells, the new method could jump-start the production of soft tiny medical devices such as drug delivery systems or flexible electrodes that can be inserted into the human body.

A standard 3D printer makes solid structures by creating sheets of material — typically plastic or rubber — and building them up layer by layer, like a lasagna, until the entire object is created.

Using a 3D printer to fabricate an object made of gel is a “bit more of a delicate cooking process,” said NIST researcher Andrei Kolmakov. In the standard method, the 3D printer chamber is filled with a soup of long-chain polymers — long groups of molecules bonded together — dissolved in water. Then “spices” are added — special molecules that are sensitive to light. When light from the 3D printer activates those special molecules, they stitch together the chains of polymers so that they form a fluffy weblike structure. This scaffolding, still surrounded by liquid water, is the gel.

Researchers in Israel have been able to 3D Print an artificial heart. Within the 2020s decade, we may see working versions implanted in humans.

What do you think about a future where we can 3D Print body organs & parts?

#Iconickelx #Transhumanism #Future

In the coming 2020s, the world of medical science will make some significant breakthroughs. Through brain implants, we will have the capability to restore lost memories.

~ The 2020s will provide us with the computer power to make the first complete human brain simulation. Exponential growth in computation and data will make it possible to form accurate models of every part of the human brain and its 100 billion neurons.

~ The prototype of the human heart was 3D printed in 2019. By the mid- 2020s, customized 3D- printing of major human body organs will become possible. In the coming decades, more and more of the 78 organs in the human body will become printable.

Continue reading “The Road to Human 2.0” »

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a new method of 3D-printing gels and other soft materials. Published in a new paper, it has the potential to create complex structures with nanometer-scale precision. Because many gels are compatible with living cells, the new method could jump-start the production of soft tiny medical devices such as drug delivery systems or flexible electrodes that can be inserted into the human body.

A standard 3D printer makes solid structures by creating sheets of material—typically plastic or rubber—and building them up layer by layer, like a lasagna, until the entire object is created.

Using a 3D printer to fabricate an object made of gel is a “bit more of a delicate cooking process,” said NIST researcher Andrei Kolmakov. In the standard method, the 3D printer chamber is filled with a soup of long-chain polymers—long groups of molecules bonded together—dissolved in water. Then “spices” are added—special molecules that are sensitive to light. When light from the 3D printer activates those special molecules, they stitch together the chains of polymers so that they form a fluffy weblike structure. This scaffolding, still surrounded by liquid water, is the gel.

Like Concrete

In simpler terms: the resulting material “feels like concrete but much lighter,” Fernandez told CNN. “Very light rock.”

“We have a route to… manufacturing buildings to tools from 3D printing to mold casting with just one single material,” he added.

Volumetric Bioprinting

Recreating human body parts using a 3D printer. This is possible in the Netherlands with the new bioprinter developed by Utrecht University and UMC Utrecht. This printer can be used to make models of organs or bones, amongst other things. These printed models can be made up of living cells on which medication can be tested, for instance.

Conventional 3D printers work by stacking plastic layers on top of each other. This build-up of layers creates a three-dimensional figure. There are already countless possibilities with these standard 3D printers. Science has been looking for years at how this technique can be applied across different areas.

Continue reading “Ultra-fast 3D bioprinter makes body parts in a flash” »

Researchers from China continue in the quest to improve methods for bone regeneration, publishing their findings in “Cryogenic 3D printing of dual-delivery scaffolds for improved bone regeneration with enhanced vascularization.”

A wide range of projects have emerged regarding new techniques for bone regeneration—especially in the last five years as 3D printing has become more entrenched in the mainstream and bioprinting has continued to evolve. Bone regeneration is consistently challenging, and while bioprinting is still relatively new as a field, much impressive progress has been made due to experimentation with new materials, nanotubes, and innovative structures.

Cell viability is usually the biggest problem. Tissue engineering, while becoming much more successful these days, is still an extremely delicate process as cells must not only be grown but sustained in the lab too. For this reason, scientists are always working to improve structures like scaffolds, as they are responsible in most cases for supporting the cells being printed. In this study, the authors emphasize the need for both “excellent osteogenesis and vascularization” in bone regeneration.

A high-power laser, optimized optical pathway, a patented adaptive resolution technology, and smart algorithms for laser scanning have enabled UpNano, a Vienna-based high-tech company, to produce high-resolution 3D-printing as never seen before.

“Parts with nano- and microscale resolution can now be printed across 12 orders of magnitude—within times never achieved previously. This has been accomplished by UpNano, a spin-out of the TU Wien, which developed a high-end two-photon polymerization (2PP) 3D-printing system that can produce polymeric parts with a volume ranging from 100 to 10¹² cubic micrometers. At the same time the printer allows for a nano- and microscale resolution,” the company said in a statement.

Recently the company demonstrated this remarkable capability by printing four models of the Eiffel Tower ranging from 200 micrometers to 4 centimeters—with perfect representation of all minuscule structures within 30 to 540 minutes. With this, 2PP 3D-printing is ready for applications in R&D and industry that seemed so far impossible.