THE ESSENTIAL
- A flexible robotic arm, dubbed “F3DB”, can 3D print living cells inside the body and be inserted into the body like an endoscope.
- This device, which can be controlled from the outside, has a maneuverable pivoting head that “prints” the bio-ink.
- It offers “the possibility of reconstructing gastric wall injuries or damage and disease inside the colon.”
“F3DB (flexible 3D bioprinter)”. This is the name of a new device developed by researchers at the University of New South Wales (Australia) to more easily treat lesions in tissues and organs. “Conventional approaches typically rely on a desktop micro-printer to create living 3D constructs in vitro before introducing them into the patient’s body, which has several drawbacks such as inadequate surfaces, structural damage and high contamination, as well as tissue damage due to transport and surgery”, they indicated in a study published in the journal Advanced Science.
A flexible robotic arm that “prints” bio-ink and can be used as an endoscope
As part of this work, scientists have unveiled the prototype of the robot, flexible and miniature, which is able to directly apply living cells to the surface of internal organs and tissues and to be inserted into the body like an endoscope. . To develop this device, they used 3D bio-printing. It is a process by which biomedical parts are made from what is called bio-ink to build natural tissue-like structures.
The demo device features a highly maneuverable pivoting head that “prints” bio-ink, attached to the end of a long, flexible snake-like robotic arm, all of which can be controlled from the outside. “This system offers the ability to accurately reconstruct three-dimensional injuries inside the body, such as gastric wall injuries or damage and disease inside the colon,” said Thanh Nho Do, author of the research, in a statement.
After printing, living cells continued to grow
After its development, the team wanted to test their device inside an artificial colon and 3D print a variety of materials of different shapes on the surface of a pig kidney. Experiments showed that the majority of cells were alive following printing. Cells then continued to grow for the next seven days, with four times as many cells seen one week following printing.
According to the authors, with further development, the technology might, potentially within five to seven years, be used by medical professionals to access hard-to-reach areas inside the body via small skin incisions or natural orifices.
The next stage in the development of the device, which has obtained a provisional patent, is the performance of in vivo tests on living animals in order to demonstrate its practical use. The engineers also plan to implement additional features, such as an integrated camera and a real-time scanning system, which would allow 3D tomography reconstruction of moving tissues inside the body.
