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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

The future of medicine is biological – and scientists hope we will soon be using 3-D-printed biologically functional tissue to replace irreparably damaged tissue in the body. A team of researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB has been working with the University of Stuttgart for a number of years on a project to develop and optimize suitable bioinks for additive manufacturing. By varying the composition of the biomaterial, the researchers have already succeeded in expanding their portfolio to include bone and vascularization inks. That has laid the foundations for manufacturing bone-like tissue structures featuring capillary networks.

3-D printing is not only gaining ground in manufacturing – it is also taking on increasing importance in the realm of regenerative medicine. Scientists are now hoping to use this tissue scaffolds that will replace irreparably damaged tissue. A team of researchers at Fraunhofer IGB in Stuttgart is also working on biobased inks for manufacturing biological implants in the laboratory using 3-D printing techniques. To create a 3-D object in the desired pre-programmed shape, the team utilizes a layer-by-layer approach to print a liquid mixture comprising biopolymers such as gelatin or hyaluronic acid, aqueous medium and living cells. These bio-inks remain in a viscous state during printing and are then exposed to UV light to crosslink them into water-containing polymer networks called hydrogels.

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