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Print Thyself: How 3-D Printing Is Changing Medicine

42 points by sasvari 12y ago

Retric 12y ago
I find this technology extremely cool and I have little doubt that its adoption should be widespread. However, while reading this I started wondering if the drop in infant mortality is going to reduce our genetic fitness over time and require ever more complex and invasive surgery. Oddly enough I think directly altering DNA is probably the best long term solution to avoiding such dependence which I find kind of uplifting. It's sort of the antithesis of the 'bleak' picture painted by most sci-fi dealing with genetic modifications.
Cogito 12y ago
The most interesting technique I hadn't heard of before (there were a couple!) was using a material that, when cooled, turns into a liquid. It is named Pluronic ink, but they refer to it as 'fugitive ink'. This enables them to print a structure that incorporates this material, cool the whole thing down, and suck out the liquid. They use this technique to lay down 3d channels in printed bio-materials, which they then infuse with endothelial cells to create blood vessels. Amazing! The other ink dispensers would take their turn, laying down a lattice of collagen and fibroblasts that would solidify around the network of fugitive ink, encasing it in tan-colored living tissue. To drain the fugitive ink, Kolesky would place the tissue on a chilled stone cube; this would cause the ink to change from a gel to a liquid, after which he could then extract it with a small suction device. The end result would be a block of living tissue suffused with intricate vessels capable of carrying nutrients to the cells within. The last step was to me the most remarkable. Once the vessels were empty, Kolesky would take a suspension of endothelial cells—the cells that line the insides of blood vessels—and inject it into the vessel network. The cells would settle in and multiply to line the insides of the channels, effectively turning the channels into blood vessels. And then the cells would spread—they would begin to branch off the existing vessels and form new ones. In effect, Lewis and her team have created an environment that the cells consider home—it is far more natural to them than a petri dish or the inorganic scaffolds that had previously played host to cultured tissues.
- steve19 12y ago
  Support material is frequently used by the hobbyist 3D printing community. There are a number of different plastics, PVA is one example, that dissolve in warm water (others dissolve in an alkaline solution) but will adhere to ABS or PLA plastic when warm. The printer will have two different extruders, one for the main material and one for the support. Entire closed gear boxes, with all the gears pre-installed can be printed in a single print using this method. Its pretty amazing stuff: http://www.3ders.org/articles/20120128-dissolvable-support-material-used-for-3d-printing-gearbox-and-hilbert-cube.html http://www.3ders.org/articles/20120128-dissolvable-support-m...
aswanson 12y ago
Seems that at least from an electrical and software standpoint that this type of printing should be fairly simple. Where is the cost justification for these devices?
doctoboggan 12y ago
I work at the Harvard lab mentioned in this article, and I wrote the software that was used to generate the header image. 3D printers are controlled in a language called GCode (also used for CNC mills). I wrote a GUI that allows the end user to draw any path with a tablet (or mouse) and then have that converted to GCode. This enabled the researchers to print more complex objects, as they previously had to write their GCode by hand.

42 points by sasvari 12y ago

I find this technology extremely cool and I have little doubt that its adoption should be widespread. However, while reading this I started wondering if the drop in infant mortality is going to reduce our genetic fitness over time and require ever more complex and invasive surgery. Oddly enough I think directly altering DNA is probably the best long term solution to avoiding such dependence which I find kind of uplifting. It's sort of the antithesis of the 'bleak' picture painted by most sci-fi dealing with genetic modifications.

Cogito 12y ago

The most interesting technique I hadn't heard of before (there were a couple!) was using a material that, when cooled, turns into a liquid. It is named Pluronic ink, but they refer to it as 'fugitive ink'. This enables them to print a structure that incorporates this material, cool the whole thing down, and suck out the liquid. They use this technique to lay down 3d channels in printed bio-materials, which they then infuse with endothelial cells to create blood vessels. Amazing! The other ink dispensers would take their turn, laying down a lattice of collagen and fibroblasts that would solidify around the network of fugitive ink, encasing it in tan-colored living tissue. To drain the fugitive ink, Kolesky would place the tissue on a chilled stone cube; this would cause the ink to change from a gel to a liquid, after which he could then extract it with a small suction device. The end result would be a block of living tissue suffused with intricate vessels capable of carrying nutrients to the cells within. The last step was to me the most remarkable. Once the vessels were empty, Kolesky would take a suspension of endothelial cells—the cells that line the insides of blood vessels—and inject it into the vessel network. The cells would settle in and multiply to line the insides of the channels, effectively turning the channels into blood vessels. And then the cells would spread—they would begin to branch off the existing vessels and form new ones. In effect, Lewis and her team have created an environment that the cells consider home—it is far more natural to them than a petri dish or the inorganic scaffolds that had previously played host to cultured tissues.

steve19 12y ago
Support material is frequently used by the hobbyist 3D printing community. There are a number of different plastics, PVA is one example, that dissolve in warm water (others dissolve in an alkaline solution) but will adhere to ABS or PLA plastic when warm. The printer will have two different extruders, one for the main material and one for the support. Entire closed gear boxes, with all the gears pre-installed can be printed in a single print using this method. Its pretty amazing stuff: http://www.3ders.org/articles/20120128-dissolvable-support-material-used-for-3d-printing-gearbox-and-hilbert-cube.html http://www.3ders.org/articles/20120128-dissolvable-support-m...

aswanson 12y ago

Seems that at least from an electrical and software standpoint that this type of printing should be fairly simple. Where is the cost justification for these devices?

doctoboggan 12y ago

I work at the Harvard lab mentioned in this article, and I wrote the software that was used to generate the header image. 3D printers are controlled in a language called GCode (also used for CNC mills). I wrote a GUI that allows the end user to draw any path with a tablet (or mouse) and then have that converted to GCode. This enabled the researchers to print more complex objects, as they previously had to write their GCode by hand.