21st Century Innovative Technologies and Developments as also discoveries, curiosity ( insolite)...

New printing technique uses cells and molecules to recreate biological structures

(Nanowerk News) Researchers from Queen Mary University of London have developed a printing technique using cells and molecules normally found in natural tissues to create constructs that resemble biological structures.

These structures are embedded in an ink which is similar to their native environment and opens the possibility to make them behave as they would in the body.

This allows the researchers to observe how cells work within these environments and potentially enables them to study biological scenarios such as where cancer grows or how immune cells interact with other cells, which could lead to the development of new drugs.

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Nature Materials, Harvard University researchers announced they’ve created the first 3D-printed heart-on-a-chip capable of collecting data about how reliably a heart is beating.

The printed organ is made of synthetic material designed to mimic the structure and function of native tissue. It is not designed to replace failing human organs, but it can be used for scientific studies, something that is expected to rapidly increase research on new medicine. The medical breakthrough may also allow scientists to rapidly design organs-on-chips to match specific disease properties or even a patient’s cells.

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Doctors perform hundreds of thousands of knee surgeries every year, often to replace damaged or worn cartilage. The techniques for performing these surgeries today may be about to change, thanks to new research. 

In the not-too-distant future, orthopedic surgeons may simply draw new cartilage inside your knee, using a 3D printing, stem-cell-extruding device called the "BioPen."

SEE ALSO: Should we 3D print a new Palmyra? Here's what it means to recreate a city destroyed by ISIS.

The device is still in the research and development stage and not yet approved for medical use, but it's an example of how 3D printing technologies may usher in new ways of treating common human ailments.

In a study published last month in the journal Biofabrication, scientists from the Australian Research Council’s Center of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES) detailed experiments with their custom-built, 3D printing pen, known as the BioPen, a device they’ve been working for almost three years. 

Its new capability, though, is what they're calling a breakthrough: the ability to effectively print viable human stem cells into damaged joints to regrow cartilage.

The pen was developed by Peter Choong, director of orthopedic

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