Researchers in Australia have developed a flexible 3D bioprinter that can layer biomaterials directly onto organs or tissue without invading it much more than the previous methods. This process will help to avoid major surgeries and the removal of organs. 

Minimally Invasive Approach of 3D Bioprinting

Bioprinting techniques have been very dangerous due to the high risk of infection, long recovery time, and mismatch between the produced part and the internal target tissues. Because of these, researchers from the University of New South Wales developed a flexible 3D bioprinter that overcomes these challenges. 

This method would only be minimally invasive to avoid major surgeries and the potential of organ removal. F3DB, the printer's name, features a soft robotic arm that can assemble biomaterials with living cells onto the damaged internal organs of tissues, which will enter the body through the mouth or anus with guidance from the surgeon through a built-in camera.

The 3D bioprinter can spray water onto the target area with a printing nozzle that can double as an electric scalpel. As per Engadget, it also uses three soft-fabric-bellow actuators through a hydraulic system of DC-power-driven syringes, which can move in three degrees of freedom. 

The researchers, led by the University of New South Wales Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering Than Nho Do and Ph.D. Student Mai Thanh Thai both hope that this new method could be an all-in-one tool for avoiding invasive operations, meaning that the tool can be used for incising, cleaning, and printing. 

Also Read: Using Holograms, Sound Fields to Mold 3D Shapes May Be Alternative To Bioprinting, Rapid Prototyping

Conducting Lab Tests

IEEE Spectrum reported that the team of researchers conducted the tool's first lab test using non-biomaterials like liquid silicone and chocolate for it prints different multilayer 3D patterns in the lab. 

This was followed by further tests and experiments that resulted in printing various shapes with nonliving materials on the surface of a pig's kidney and situ living biomaterials on a glass surface inside an artificial colon. Do state, "We saw the cells grow every day and increase by four times on day seven, the last day of the experiment." 

The researchers also conducted various functions like washing, marking, and dissecting the intestine of a pig to test the device as an all-purpose tool for endoscopic surgery. The results show that the 3D bioprinter could be developed into an endoscopic tool for endoscopic submucosal dissection procedures. 

However, further improvements are still needed, like including more parameters in the model that controls the printing and adding more cameras for better monitoring. In theory, this sounds like the future, but the research team warns that this method could be used for human testing five to seven years from now. 

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