Imagine repairing a damaged organ without ever needing to go under the knife.
How would this be possible? Researchers in Germany are working toward building a 3D printer the size of a grain of salt that can print living tissue directly inside the body, Interesting Engineering reported.
A team led by Dr. Andrea Toulouse at the University of Stuttgart has developed an ultra-tiny 3D printer that uses light-based technology to build biological tissue in places that conventional bio-printers cannot reach. The device is backed by a $2 million grant from the Carl Zeiss Foundation.
According to Interesting Engineering, the device is small enough to pass through a thin optical fiber, allowing doctors to "print" cell structures at precise locations in the body.
Current 3D bio-printers can already create tissue, such as muscle or cartilage, in a lab. However, safely implanting it remains the biggest hurdle.
This new system intends to solve that by going straight to the source at the micro level. Rather than growing tissue externally, the team's micro-printer works from within. It uses a laser light guided through a glass fiber to shape special bio-inks into living structures layer by layer.
"Our group aims to develop a 3D-printed micro-optic, no larger than a grain of salt, that can be positioned on the tip of a glass fiber," Toulouse told Interesting Engineering. "There, it will shape light so that even complex tissue structures can be printed in 3D."
This advancement builds on prior work from the EndoPrint3D project, which successfully demonstrated that laser pulses could form structures through optical fibers.
This breakthrough could change modern medicine forever, allowing doctors to repair organs and tissues directly inside the body. This would reduce the need for invasive surgeries and speed up healing.
By minimizing the need for complex surgeries and artificial implants, this technology could reduce medical waste and energy use in healthcare. This would immediately put us on a path toward a more sustainable, eco-friendly medical future.
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Would you swallow a robot pill to improve your health? Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. |
Absolutely 💯 But to avoid getting ahead of ourselves, it is important to remember that this technology is still in early development and must be rigorously tested before it can be used on real humans. Also, safely integrating 3D-printed tissues with living cells inside the human body remains a major scientific and regulatory challenge.
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