Even at low speeds, the 3D printer designed by Rohit Bhargava is simply mesmerizing. During movement, a trickle of thin, shiny mass, similar to plastic, suddenly appears from the sharp tip. In a split second, another tube comes out. Then they join, the outlines of a three-dimensional shape are drawn - a tiny anatomically exact copy of the heart.
Rohit Bhargava and his 3D printer
The head of the University of Illinois Cancer Innovation Center is working on the problem of introducing complex technical solutions into modern medicine.
“There must be fundamental changes in healthcare,” says Bhargava. - Pay attention to modern laptops, phones. Previously, they were expensive, but over time, they became cheaper, because technology became more advanced. If we transfer innovative developments to the healthcare sector, generalize knowledge and transform them into useful solutions, in the future we will be able to significantly reduce the cost of medical care and improve its quality."
The Bhargava 3D printer is based on complex mathematical algorithms. The device can print tubes up to 10 microns thick - 1/5 the thickness of a human hair.
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The filaments coming out of the Rohit printer can bind to each other and create complex designs. Cells can develop on them, biological fluids can pass through them. Lymphatic vessels, milk ducts and other elements can be reproduced in any quantity - tens, hundreds, thousands. This allows many important experiments to be carried out.
Researchers will be able to inject tumor cells into each sample, focusing on behavior, cancer responses in the body of an individual patient, due to the use of different therapeutic methods. This will make it easier to analyze and understand the differences between diseased and healthy tissues.
Cyborg technology
Minnesota scientist Michael McAlpin also focused on the work of 3D printers.
As a rule, in the course of research, he and his colleagues replace the heart with a pacemaker, knee cartilage with titanium. Modern technologies make it possible to install instead of the affected organ, for example, the liver, a three-dimensional copy of it, consisting of the same cells as the original.
One of the first achievements of McAlpin's laboratory was the ear - a spiral of silver nanoparticles was embedded in the pink shell of cartilage. Then the invention became the subject of ridicule because of its simplicity and crude appearance. However, the ear was able to detect radio frequencies that were outside the normal range of humans.
It was a cell of the same type with simple electronics. In the scientific community, this was called "direct recording", "additive manufacturing", since everyone understood that this was not 3D printing yet. However, the barrier was thrown down. Today 3D bionics projects are everywhere.
Engineering solutions for the future
McAlpin is working on a machine that can process different types of materials at the same time, quickly combine biological substances and electronics.
Of course, the time has not come yet when prosthetic ears with superpowers are available to everyone. But it's not that far, thanks to the work of McAlpin's team. His lab doesn't stop at the ear. Most recently, the scientist's team created a bionic eye. Now engineers are working on bionic skin and regenerated spinal cord.
McAlpin believes no one needs a 3D printer now because it only prints bulky knickknacks to the desktop. Expansion of the functions of technology, the introduction of algorithms due to which the devices will work with soft polymers, various biological materials and electronics.
Pain-free injections
At the University of Texas at Dallas, a team led by Jeremiah J. Gassensmith is working to improve injection needles using 3D technology.
“Needles have no friends,” jokes Ron Smaldon, a UT-Dallas chemist and member of the Gassensmith group. Together with graduate students Daniel Berry and Michael Luzuriaga, Ron helped develop the 3D microneedle patch. It resembles a piece of duct tape in which a vaccine or medicine is poured.
The patch contains a grid of microscopic needles. They pierce the upper layer of the patient's skin completely painlessly in order to deliver the necessary medicines to the body. Currently, microneedle production is carried out using plastic molds or from stainless steel templates using lithography. The use of 3D technology and biodegradable plastic will significantly reduce development costs. Microneedle patches in the near future can be produced wherever there is an energy source.
Microscopic robot swimmers
Hakan Ceylan, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (Stuttgart, Germany), is making ambitious plans: he wants to eliminate the need for surgery. How? Robots-swimmers (microsimmers) the size of a cage will help him in this.
“Surgical interventions are very traumatic. Many surgeries are fatal. Or people die from postoperative infections,”says Hakan Ceylan.
Microsimmers are created on a 3D printer using two-photon polymerization and double helical hydrogel with magnetic nanoparticles. Swimming robots are semi-autonomous. They are implanted using external magnetic radiation. They are also able to respond to certain environmental signals or chemicals that they encounter inside the body.
Brain analysis
Eric Wiire works at the University of San Diego. He examines the brain: the causes of migraines, tinnitus, dizziness and other disorders. Viire's work involves using virtual reality technology to treat some of these conditions.
The scientist is also studying the possibilities of video analysis in the diagnosis of melanoma. The use of this technology will make it possible to create larger, better quality databases, and cheaper hyperspectral sensors.
Ilya Filatov