Oct 24, 2016 | By Alec
The 3D bioprinting of organ and human tissue implants is fantastic, but it’s just one part of the larger field of tissue regeneration – the most widely anticipated medical breakthrough field, which could enable damaged tissues, organs and bones to simply grow back again. You’d almost never need a kidney donor ever again. A lot of 3D bioprinting and material studies can be seen as part of that field, and a Dutch research team affiliated with the Universities of Maastricht and Delft have realized a very important breakthrough on the road towards bone regeneration. They have successfully 3D printed smart implants with self-folding properties that can facilitate bone cell regeneration.
This 3D printed smart implant breakthrough has just been revealed in the journal Materials Horizons, in a cover story entitled ‘Programming the shape-shifting of flat soft matter: from self-rolling/self-twisting materials to self-folding origami’, by S. Janbaz, R. Hedayati, and A. A. Zadpoor. And as they reveal, this bone breakthrough could be applied to all kinds of medical implants used today.
As Dr. Amir Zadpoor explained, complete regeneration of functional tissue is the Holy Grail of tissue engineering, and could revolutionize the treatment of many diseases doctors currently struggle with. But effective regeneration methods require multifunctional biomaterials that facilitate cell growth, and that is exactly what this joint Maastrict and Delft project is focusing on...
SOURCE: 3ders.org ( go on reading...)
