Advances in Biomedicine & Inspirations

Hello. I am currently a Korean BME sophmore at Georgia Tech, where I hope to research applications of 3D printing to biomedical engineering. I have done numerous BME related projects before school. For example, during senior year of high school, I have done the language portion of a joint research paper with my father on morphologically analyzing tumors and extracting 3D data by aggregating 2D data from multiple MRIs. This technique outlined in the paper will enable doctors to recognize the height, volume, surface area, density, thickness, and most of all, strength of the patient's tumor. I've started this blog so that I can share our research process and findings as well as to respost interesting stories and findings related to biomedicine and 3D printing.My academic curiosity reflects a broader curiosity. I have traveled to countries on various continents, ranging from Europe and Asia to North America. I am also a huge Green Day fan. Feel more than welcome to leave comments to me on anything from bioengineering and 3D technology, to Green Day. Basically, anything awesome.

[justicestripe]

UTSA researchers close to using 3D printer to print organs

You can make a lot of things using a 3D printer and now researchers at UTSA believe they're very close to being able to print organs; something that could save countless lives.

‘“I had kidney problems since I was born. I weighed 2 lbs, 2 oz,” Padilla said.

For decades, pain and suffering was routine for Padilla, and it only got worse as she got older.

“It just all kind of started going downhill and then I ended on dialysis, which is no fun,” Padilla recalled.

Thankfully for Padilla, there was someone who was the perfect match for a kidney transplant. The donor was her sister.

“People wait forever, people die on that list and that wasn't and option for me, because I have two kids and a family,” Padilla said.’

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Experts answer your questions on the emerging field of 3D bioprinting.

Annoyingly, the article did misspell Dr. Atala’s name, but nonetheless, experts in the field of 3D Bioprinting are here to answer your questions. 

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Will 3D printers, bioprinters change the future of surgery?

3D printers help doctors practice complicated surgeries, create bespoke prosthetics and even print spare body parts for implants. Now doctors are turning to bioprinters to 3D print human tissues and, eventually, organs for surgeries of the future.

An updated recap of 3D Bioprinting.

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Stem Cells Printed in 3-D with Inkjet Devices

Inkjet printing technology may hold key to "printing" organs from scratch.

Yes, you read that right. Stem cells can be printed in a 3D Bioprinter, at least according to researchers in the University of Edinburgh. 

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Arms, Cells … Faces? How 3D Printing is Reconstructing Medicine (Gallery)

If 3D printed organs and prosthetics weren't already cool, now Marvel is on board.

It’s not only about Marvel - there’s more to 3D Printing. This shows the summary of what 3D Bioprinting brings to the table, from printed organs to prosthetics that lend children a superpower, not a handicap. 

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3D Bioprinting BioBots Wants Piece of $50 Billion Pharmaceutical Industry Research Spend

3D bioprinting technology startup, BioBots, is seeking to disrupt the nascent field of bioprinting with its new printer for 3D living tissue creation. At only USD$5,000 per printer, I would say they are off to a pretty good start. 3D bioprinting is not new: It began in the mid-1990s. Recently, many [...]

[justicestripe]

Two-year-old girl saved by surgeons who made 3D copy of her heart

Mina Khan from Bury, Greater Manchester, was born with a hole in the wall between two chambers of her heart which left her struggling to survive.

This little miracle at the St. Thomas' Hospital shows just another one of the applications of 3D technology to biomedicine. This girl's defect heart (including the gaping hole on the wall between her heart chambers, aka her ventricles) left Mina Kahn struggling for life - she couldn't eat, and her hair couldn't even grow.

However, doctors used 3D technology (first, scanning her heart with an MRI and then printing a replica of her heart through the usage of a 3D printer) to print out her tiny heart, complete with the problematic gaping hole. This 3D printed "practice organ" allowed doctors to pinpoint the problem, and they were able put a Gore-Tex patch on the gaping hole in her heart.  Her surgery turned out to be a success - little Mina is now happily living a normal life.

'The 3D printing meant we could create a model of her heart and then see the inside of it with a replica of the hole as it looked when the heart was pumping,' Dr. Greil said. 'We could go into the operation with a much better idea of what we would find.' 

Dr Gerald Greil, who has pioneered the use of the 3D-printing technique at St Thomas', said the model he and colleagues created also helped them tailor the Gore-Tex patch stitched into Mina's heart.

3D printing and the technologies of a "practice organ" have saved Mina's life - and possibly countless more in the future. 

Surgeon Bhaskar Somani, of Southampton General Hospital, said: "It makes our job easier going in. The 3D model helps because it gives us a rough estimation of where to come from and to be more precise.'

[justicestripe]

Because building from a molecular sized level of DNA to a human's level of a fully functional organ is difficult, the development of 3D organ printing has always faced many obstacles. However, researchers from University of Texas Austin have developed a DNA 'glue'. This glue, made out of DNA, could hold together 3D printed materials to nurture tissues and organs in the lab. 

The past of waiting for organ donations may truly become extinct, once and for all, thanks to this invention.

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This particular technique developed by Professor Garcia and his students at Georgia Tech, decreases the risk of ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) surgery failing, by molding 3D printed tendons or ligaments as a natural bone structure. 

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3D printing: The desktop drugstore

Printers that create artificial limbs, cheap drugs and replacement organs could radically change medicine in poorer countries. But can this technology deliver?

Not only realizing 3D printing, but also making it accessible.

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Lab-Made Heart Represents "Moonshot" for 3-D Printing

The heart represents one of the most ambitious goals for researchers working to create 3-D printed organs within the field of regenerative medicine

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Meet the first HEARTLESS man who is able to live without a heartbeat or a PULSE

Craig Lewis, 55, pictured, was the first human patient to receive a 'continuous flow' device which allows blood to flow throughout his body without a pulse.

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Paralyzed woman uses thoughts to sip coffee... in almost 15 years.

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Japanese Researchers Propose a “Bone Bank” to Stockpile 3D Printed Bones

We've all heard of blood banks, and other similar stockpiles of necessary supplies for those who might need bodily fluids, like platelets.

Yes, you read that right - it's not a blood bank, it's a bone bank, all thanks to 3D printing.

[justicestripe]

UK Man 3D Prints Surgical Model of His Own Kidney For Doctors

Who said that the kidney had to come from a patient that knows nothing about 3D printing?

Upon arrival at Southampton General and explaining his profession and interest in 3D printing to the doctors, he was able to have a 3D printed model of his kidney with the stone embedded in it made, as well able to convince the progressive team of doctors to use the model during surgery. It all came together in a perfect confluence of timing and innovation as the team, using the 3D printed model which took five hours to print, was indeed able to save a substantial amount of time during the surgery.

The 3D printed model took approximately five hours to print. Sliced in half, the model displayed the exact location and size of the considerable kidney stone.

“It makes our job easier going in,” said Surgeon Bhaskar Somani. “This was a large stone, almost 3.5cm, so it’s quite a big bulk and the 3D helps because it gives us a rough estimation of where to come from and to be more precise.”

[justicestripe]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yG5YqWkYYHI

"At CEU, John Harris explores the future of science and humanity"

Hubris? Biomedicine? The future? 

One of the things that stuck with me:

We mourn over the loss of animals made over the randomly processed Darwinian Evolution, yet we never seem to be as excited as we are about the new species of artificially selected/ created animals that we create. Somehow, though we are a part of nature, we never seem to accept our theories and research as a contributing factor of it,  but as an anomaly.

We may inevitably die out as a species, and later, the world may be full of organisms that humans artificially created, from nanobots to genetically engineering organisms. 

[txchnologist]

by Txchnologist staff

Researchers in South Korea and the U.S. have developed what they call a “smart” prosthetic skin embedded with heat, humidity and pressure sensors that can relay sensations to the wearer.

They say their stretchy silicone-based material can...