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Title: Cornell scientists use 3-D printer, living-cell injections to create new ears
Source:
theithacajournal.com
URL Source: http://www.theithacajournal.com/vie ... ell-injections-create-new-ears
Published: Feb 20, 2013
Author: Lauran Neergaard
Post Date: 2013-02-20 21:26:19 by Ferret Mike
Keywords: None
Views: 4225
Comments: 8
WASHINGTON — Printing out body parts? Cornell University researchers showed it’s possible by creating a replacement ear using a 3-D printer and injections of living cells. The work reported Wednesday is a first step toward one day growing customized new ears for children born with malformed ones, or people who lose one to accident or disease. It’s part of the hot field of tissue regeneration, trying to regrow all kinds of body parts. Scientists hope using 3-D printing technology might offer a speedier method with more lifelike results. If it pans out, “this enables us to rapidly customize implants for whoever needs them,” said Cornell biomedical engineer Lawrence Bonassar, who co-authored the research published online in the journal PLoS One. This first-step work crafted a human-shaped ear that grew with cartilage from a cow, easier to obtain than human cartilage, especially the uniquely flexible kind that makes up ears. Study co-author Dr. Jason Spector, of Weill Cornell Medical Center, is working on the next step — how to cultivate enough of a child’s remaining ear cartilage in the lab to grow an entirely new ear that could be implanted in the right spot. Wednesday’s report is “a nice advancement,” said Dr. Anthony Atala, director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, who wasn’t involved in the new research. Three-dimensional printers, which gradually layer materials to form shapes, are widely used in manufacturing. For medicine, Atala said, the ear work is part of broader research that shows “the technology now is at the point where we can in fact print these 3-dimensional structures and they do become functional over time.” Today, people who need a new ear often turn to prosthetics that require a rod to fasten to the head. For children, doctors sometimes fashion a new ear from the stiffer cartilage surrounding ribs, but it’s a big operation. Spector said the end result seldom looks completely natural. Hence the quest to use a patient’s own cells to grow a replacement ear. The Cornell team started with a 3-D camera that rapidly rotates around a child’s head for a picture of the existing ear to match. It beams the ear’s geometry into a computer, without the mess of a traditional mold or the radiation if CT scans were used to measure ear anatomy. “Kids aren’t afraid of it,” said Bonassar, who used his then-5-year-old twin daughters’ healthy ears as models. From that image, the 3-D printer produced a soft mold of the ear. Bonassar injected it with a special collagen gel that’s full of cow cells that produce cartilage — forming a scaffolding. Over the next few weeks, cartilage grew to replace the collagen. At three months, it appeared to be a flexible and workable outer ear, the study concluded. Now Bonassar’s team can do the process even faster by using the living cells in that collagen gel as the printer’s “ink.” The 3-D technology directly layers the gel into just the right ear shape for cartilage to cover, without having to make a mold first. The next step is to use a patient’s own cells in the 3-D printing process. Spector, a reconstructive surgeon, is focusing on children born without a fully developed external ear, a condition called microtia. They have some ear cartilage-producing cells in that tissue, just not enough. So he’s experimenting with ways to boost those cells in the lab, “so we can grow enough of them from that patient to make an ear,” he explained. That hurdle aside, cartilage may be the tissue most amenable to growing with the help of 3-D printing technology, he said. That’s because cartilage doesn’t need blood vessels growing inside it to survive.
An ear being made by a 3-D bio-printer at Cornell University, under the direction of Professor of Biomedical Engineering Lawrence Bonassar. / Associated Press
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#1. To: Ferret Mike (#0)
that is so fu*king COOL
It really is exciting to see this amazing innovation. I can see this as only being the first of many new uses for this technology to revolutionize the scope and quality of many things in medicine.
Out of all the amazing advances that have surprised and pleased me since the 1950's,3-D printing is clearly the most amazing. The concept seems to be so clear while being impossible at the same time. I have no doubt that within the next 10-15 years they will be "printing" out new kidneys,livers,pancreases,bladders,and even eyes that are made from the patients own cells and no anti-rejection drugs will be required. I wish it were possible to do bladder transfers now. I have a friend dying of bladder cancer the doctors just sent home from the hospital last week after telling him there was nothing more they could do for him,and chemo or radiation would be a waste of time.
Why is democracy held in such high esteem when it’s the enemy of the minority and makes all rights relative to the dictates of the majority? (Ron Paul,2012)
the potential of 3d printing is mind boggling
No kidding. I can get a little giddy just thinking about it. Of course like all other new technology,it will come with a cost. Now is a very good time to tell your children or grandchildren to forget about ever getting a factory job assembling or manufacturing anything. Sad to say,employment is going to be tough to find for machinists and tool and die makers,too. Look for a major war or two in Third World Countries in the next 20-30 years as the "worlds managers" (bankers)figure out how to get rid of the excess labor force. As always,"there ain't no such thing as a free lunch!"
Why is democracy held in such high esteem when it’s the enemy of the minority and makes all rights relative to the dictates of the majority? (Ron Paul,2012)
Agreed and it's pretty much written in stone, just not sure of the time/place of next war but it's coming. As for as kids, i concentrating my 8 year old on high tech areas. That's where the jobs are going to be. Fortunately he's a bright kid and computers are second nature to him. He's already in a class learning to create video games programs and he's done a couple that are pretty cool already.
Cool! Maybe they can make pairs of balls and hand them out to the bed wetters on this site, LP, and the entire Democan/Republicrat voting block who wet themselves over Muslims in general and Iran in particular. Maybe if they had a set of balls they wouldn't let a bunch of criminals in DC scare the bejesus out of them.
I Second the motion.
#2. To: calcon (#1)
#3. To: Ferret Mike, *Health*, *Science and technology* (#0)
#4. To: sneakypete (#3)
I have no doubt that within the next 10-15 years they will be "printing" out new kidneys,livers,pancreases,bladders,and even eyes that are made from the patients own cells and no anti-rejection drugs will be required.
#5. To: calcon (#4)
the potential of 3d printing is mind boggling
#6. To: sneakypete (#5)
Look for a major war or two in Third World Countries in the next 20-30 years as the "worlds managers" (bankers)figure out how to get rid of the excess labor force. As always,"there ain't no such thing as a free lunch!"
#7. To: Ferret Mike (#0)
#8. To: Fibr Dog (#7)
(Edited)
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