What if the future of surgery was in 3D printers? In any case, this is what the University of New South Wales in Sydney offers.
Researchers have indeed developed a small, flexible 3D bioprinter capable of repairing organs and tissues. But that’s the theory, and its implementation is not likely to happen for several years, if we are to believe its creators.
The 3D printer instead of invasive surgery?
Called F3DB, this invention has a robotic arm that can combine biological materials and living cells to apply them to damaged internal organs or tissues. It thus has great flexibility and a size small enough to move efficiently in the human body, entering through the mouth or… the back door.
In addition, thanks to a mounted camera, the arm is piloted by a surgeon towards the areas requiring repair. In addition to repairing damaged organs and tissues with biological materials, F3DB is equipped with a jet of water to clean the fruit of its operation. She also has an electric scalpel.
In short, it is an all-in-one surgical 3D printer on which the researchers behind the project have high hopes. Thus, F3DB could one day be an alternative to invasive surgery without having to resort to opening a patient.
An application within ten years?
While F3DB has great potential, the project is still in its infancy. Indeed, the team from the University of New South Wales has so far tested its bio-printer using non-biological materials such as chocolate and liquid silicone.
The device was then put to the test on a pig kidney, then moved on to biological materials printed on an artificial colon placed on a glass surface. ” We saw the cells grow every day and multiply by four at the end of the seventh day, the last day of the experiment. said Thanh Nho Do, one of the brains behind F3DB.
Caution is the mother of safety, and the use of this bio-printer in a human body is still far from becoming a reality. According to the researchers, the transition from theory to practice could happen, remaining optimistic, in 5 to 7 years. Other specialists outside the project consider with a certain cynicism that the commercialization of such an invention ” it’s only a matter of time », without taking into account the maturity of a promising project, but very far from being developed.
Source : Online Library
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