Sydney: The University of New South Wales has invented an amazing and creative 3-D Bioprinter (F3DB). The university has made enormous progress in the field of bioprinting.
Every year, millions of people suffer from tissue breakage and die from trauma or injury. However, the surgical process mainly includes stitches to promote tissue healing.
In case, if the ability occurs it will lead to complications and may cause infections. Indeed, up till now, many 3D bioprinting projects are available to reproduce cellular structures, and organs and to support other diseases.
F3DB Bio Printer
The tiny flexible 3D printer named F3DB is led by Dr Thanh Nho Do and Dr Mai Thanh Thai. The printer consists of three axes rotating print heads attached to the robotic arm. The nozzle is in a way that print pre-designed shapes.
F3DB has the potential to transform the medical industry by enabling the layering of organic components directly inside the tissues or organs with very less invasiveness.
The objective behind the invention is to minimise the need for major surgeries or the removal of organs.
How It Works?
The new innovative and creative 3D-printer F3DB works on a robotic arm that operates using a hydraulic system consists of three soft-fabric bellow actuators. These actuators are powered by DC-motor driven syringes that pump water.
IEEE Spectrum has reported that the arm as well as flexible printing head, both moves in three degrees of freedom (DOFs) in comparison to movements made by 3D printers.
Moreover, F3DB printer is embedded with a flexible miniature camera that enables the operator to monitor the procedure. Not only this, it keeps a continuous track of the whole process.
What It Actually Does?
F3DB has a soft robotic arm that has an ability to to assemble biomaterials that contain living cells directly onto damaged tissues or organs.
Moreover, the bioprinter’s snake-like flexible body can inserted inside the body. Through anus or mouth and a surgeon can control its movement with hand gestures.
According to the researchers, F3DB is designed to reach the hard areas as well of the body such as colon, stomach, heart and bladder, which is comparatively difficult to do it with current surgical devices. Though, the smallest prototype of the F3DB has exactly the same dimensions to traditional endoscopes about 11-13 mm.
In addition, the researchers says that it has an ability to remove certain cancers,including colon cancer using the endoscopic submucosal dissection process. The technique consist in removing a part of an organ or tissue affected by cancerous lesions. Hence, the operator uses a water jet to clean the cancerous surface.
Testing
Hence, the researchers have done the testing on variety of materials on a surface of pig’s kidney. Accrding to their research, the printing process did not impacted negatively on the cells.
“We saw the cells grow everyday and increase by four times on day seven, the last day of the experiment. The result show the F3DB has strong potential to develop into an all-in-one endoscopic tool for endoscopic dissection procedures”, stated by Thanh Do and his team members.
Later, the team will test it on a live animal and to add additional features to F3DB. The research team at University of New South Wales in Australia is hopeful that medical professionals will adopt the technology to revolutionise the old method of surgeries.
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