3D Printing Archives - Amazing Health Advances

Coffee Grounds & Reishi Mushroom Spores Can be 3D Printed into a Compostable Alternative to Plastics

The AHA! Team — Fri, 09 May 2025 05:24:29 +0000

University of Washington via EurekAlert! – Only 30% of a coffee bean is soluble in water, and many brewing methods aim to extract significantly less than that. So, of the 1.6 billion pounds of coffee Americans consume in a year, more than 1.1 billion pounds of grounds are knocked from filters into compost bins and garbage cans. While watching the grounds from her own espresso machine accumulate, Danli Luo, a University of Washington doctoral student in human centered design and engineering, saw an opportunity. Coffee is nutrient-rich and sterilized during brewing, so it’s ideal for growing fungus, which, before it sprouts into mushrooms, forms a “mycelial skin.” This skin, a sort of white root system, can bind loose substances together and create a tough, water-resistant, lightweight material. Coffee is nutrient-rich and sterilized during brewing, so it’s ideal for growing fungus Luo and a UW team developed a new system for turning those coffee grounds into a paste, which they use to 3D print objects: packing materials, pieces of a vase, a small statue. They inoculate the paste with Reishi mushroom spores, which grow on the objects to form that mycelial skin. The skin turns the coffee grounds — even when formed into complex shapes — into a resilient, fully compostable alternative to plastics. For intricate designs, the mycelium fuses separately printed pieces together to form a single object. Published findings The team published its findings Jan. 23 in 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing. “We’re especially interested in creating systems for people like small businesses owners producing small-batch products — for example, small, delicate glassware that needs resilient packaging to ship,” said lead author Luo. “So we’ve been working on new material recipes that can replace things like Styrofoam with something more sustainable and that can be easily customized for small-scale production.” New material recipes that can replace things like Styrofoam To create the “Mycofluid” paste, Luo mixed used coffee grounds with brown rice flour, Reishi mushroom spores, xanthan gum (a common food binder found in ice creams and salad dressings) and water. Luo also built a new 3D printer head for the Jubilee 3D printer that the UW’s Machine Agency lab designed. The new printer system can hold up to a liter of the paste. The team printed various objects with the Mycofluid: packaging for a small glass, three pieces of a vase, two halves of a Moai statue and a two-piece coffin the size of a butterfly. The objects then sat covered in a plastic tub for 10 days, during which the mycelium formed a sort of shell around the Mycofluid. In the case of the statue and vase, the separate pieces also fused together. The process is the same as that of homegrown mushroom kits: Keep the mycelium moist as it grows from a nutrient rich material. If the pieces stayed in the tub longer, actual mushrooms would sprout from the objects, but instead they’re removed after the white mycelial skin has formed. Researchers then dried the pieces for 24 hours, which halts the fruiting of the mushrooms. The finished material is heavier than Styrofoam — closer to the density of cardboard or charcoal. After an hour in contact with water, it absorbed only 7% more weight in water and dried to close its initial weight while keeping its shape. It was as strong and tough as polystyrene and expanded polystyrene foam, the substance used to make Styrofoam. All its components are compostable Though the team didn’t specifically test the material’s compostability, all its components are compostable (and, in fact, edible, though less than appetizing). Because the Mycofluid requires relatively homogeneous used coffee grounds, working with it at significant scale would prove difficult, but the team is interested in other forms of recycled materials that might form similar biopastes. “We’re interested in expanding this to other bio-derived materials, such as other forms of food waste,” Luo said. “We want to broadly support this kind of flexible development, not just to provide one solution to this major problem of plastic waste.” This research was funded by the National Science Foundation. Junchao Yang, a UW master’s student in human centered design and engineering when completing this research, is a co-author, and Nadya Peek, UW associate professor of human centered design and engineering, is the senior author. For more information, contact Luo at danlil@uw.edu. Journal 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing DOI 10.1089/3dp.2023.0342 To read the original article click here.

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3D Printing Your Own Personalized Contact Lenses

The AHA! Team — Mon, 21 Oct 2024 08:26:35 +0000

John Jeffay via Israel21c – Lensy envisions that within a few years, the optometrist will check your vision, press a button and hand you a perfect pair of custom contact lenses. Instant 3D-printed contact lenses are the future. You’ll go for an eye exam, the optometrist will check your vision, press a button, and within minutes you’ll have a pair of contact lenses that are a perfect fit and provide perfect vision. Leonardo da Vinci came up with the theoretical idea of contact lenses in 1508. They didn’t become a practical reality until the 1930s. Yet even now they haven’t really taken off. Three billion people globally wear glasses, but only 150 million opt for contacts. The reason: Price and comfort. Contact lenses work out to be far more expensive than eyeglasses, especially now that 90 percent of users choose disposables. And many people find they simply can’t wear them – because their eyes are the wrong shape. Eyes are a bit like feet, Edan Kenig, CEO at Israeli startup Lensy, tells ISRAEL21c. They come in different shapes and sizes. Yet off-the-shelf contact lenses are “one-size-fits-all” aside from the optical part in the center. So they more or less fit 70% of the world’s population, but for the other 30%, it’s just tough. That’s because the big players in the optical market use the same molds to mass-manufacture millions of lenses. Some inevitably end up being too loose, some too tight, depending on tiny but significant differences in eye shape and size. Kenig says his technology will solve both the price and comfort problems, and his lenses could be available to buy four years from now. Resin 3D “I would really like to wear contact lens for the whole day,” says Kenig, who is extremely short-sighted (a minus-11 prescription). “But now I’m limited to use them only for sport [he does Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu] for a few hours because it’s not comfortable for me.” He’s a biophysicist by training and later became an engineer and an entrepreneur, learning how to develop ideas into products. He saw the potential of an emerging technology called resin 3D-printing, a more sophisticated form of standard 3D printing. It uses UV light to “cure” or harden a resin, rather than squirting material through a nozzle to build objects layer by layer. Kenig and his small team, based in Rehovot, central Israel, have adapted a form of contact lens material and developed a technique to resin 3D-print it. They’ve got as far as printing a contact lens — and say they’re the first to have done so — but still need to perfect it before they can try it out in a human eye. Custom solutions Lensy is an early-stage startup founded in early 2022 with help from the Israel Innovation Authority. The company currently has no external funding. Big companies are also researching and developing printed lenses, says Kenig, but they’re planning what he calls “large, cumbersome, expensive printers” rather than the desktop version he’s working on. For the 70% of people with “normal” eyes, mass-produced lenses will likely remain the best option, he says. For the other 30%, tailored lenses will be a gamechanger. “The further away you are away from the average fit, the more problems you’re going to have, such as people with a high astigmatism, people with high myopia and people with peculiar eye shapes that are not round and not spherical. “The optometrist will then have the opportunity to make a custom solution so the patient will have an affordable, comfortable fit that’s tailored to their needs.” The machine will be available on a lease basis, using capsules that will cost the optometrist $50 per eye. The lenses will be reusable, although it’s possible that the technology will evolve to produce disposables. Like shoes “Contact lenses aren’t a new solution, yet they have many disadvantages that haven’t been resolved by better materials or better designs,” Kenig says. Around a fifth of wearers give up on them every year, he says. So although new users are always starting, the market is effectively stagnant. That’s partly to do with the cost – around $4 a day, he says – but largely because of the one-size-fits-all restriction. “It’s like going into a shoe store,” says Kenig, “and all the shoes are size nine [42 in Europe]. So if you’re size nine, great. If you’re size eight, you will have some problems. But if you’re seven or 11, it’ll be impossible.” Kenig says getting contact lenses today is time-consuming, cumbersome and labor-intensive, and the patient has to be really committed. Even a minor miscalculation means the optician will have to have the lenses redone. “If you have problem with your off-the-shelf contact lens, the optician will tell you to take glasses instead. They don’t have the tools to tailor your lenses.” In the future, Kenig says Lensy could make contact lenses that incorporate existing technology for kids that actually slows the progress of myopia as their eyes grow. Kenig also says lenses could one day be impregnated with slow-release drugs to avoid the need for painful eye injections, and smart contact lenses could be embedded with sensors and cameras. For more information, click here. To read the original article click here.

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Israeli Surgeons Correct Child’s Birth Defect with a 3D Printed Ear

AHA Publisher — Fri, 06 May 2022 07:00:48 +0000

Brian Blum via Israel21c – Israeli doctors attached a 3D-printed ear to a six-year-old boy born with microtia, a deformity that stops the development of a baby’s ear in the womb, usually during the first trimester of pregnancy. A company outside the hospital printed the synthetic prosthesis with a 3-D printer and adapted it to fit the child. The staff from the plastic surgery department at Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya then attached it and covered it with skin. Reconstructing an ear using cartilage and prosthetics is not unusual, but 3D printing that cartilage was a breakthrough. The entire procedure took three hours, and the boy was released from the hospital several days later. His grateful parents were moved to tears. Unfortunately, the ear is not functional because microtia causes blockage of the ear canal, a complication that’s not fixable through surgery. Even still, the synthetic prosthesis “reduces pain and complications that could be caused in the area from which the cartilage is extracted,” Dr. Amin Abu-Jabal, who led the surgical team, told Ynet. It offers “maximal accuracy and aesthetic in the highest level.” While microtia affects babies before they’re born, corrective surgery cannot be performed until a child is six years old, at which point the ear reaches about 85 percent of its full size. Microtia is usually not hereditary and, in most cases, affects only one ear. Approximately one in 6,000 to 8,000 babies are born with the condition and the cause is not known. They may have only a small ear or no ear at all. Researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and Sheba Medical Center previously developed a way to 3D print the “scaffolding” required for ear reconstruction. This development was not connected to the reconstruction in Nahariya. To read the original article click here.

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Israeli Tissue Engineers 3D-Print An Ear

AHA Publisher — Mon, 20 Dec 2021 08:50:16 +0000

Brian Blum via Israel21c – A small percentage (0.1% to 0.3%) of babies are born with congenitally deformed ears. This can have a severe psychological impact, and sometimes involves hearing loss. While surgeons can reconstruct a proper ear using cartilage harvested from the patient’s chest, the procedure is not usually performed until at least 10 years of age. Researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and Sheba Medical Center have developed a way to 3D-print “scaffolding” as the basis for a replacement ear. The scaffold, which allows for the formation of an aesthetic and stable auricle (the visible part of the external ear), is designed from a CT scan of the patient’s ear and can be performed on children as young as six years old. The biodegradable scaffold forms chondrocytes, the cells responsible for cartilage formation, and mesenchymal stem cells. Pores of varying sizes allow for cell attachment to form stable cartilage. The procedure has so far been tested on lab rats. The researchers monitored cartilage formation within the auricle construct in the lab for between 10 days and six weeks before implanting it in the test subjects. The grafted prosthetic ear demonstrated good biomechanical function, the researchers reported in the journal Biofabrication. The project was led by Prof. Shulamit Levenberg of the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering at the Technion and Dr. Shay Izhak Duvdevani, a senior physician in the Otorhinolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery Department and head of the Tissue Engineering Lab at Sheba Medical Center. The protocols were developed in Levenberg’s lab under Dr. Shira Landau. “One of the challenges in the study was to find a suitable 3D-printing method, since fabricating an ear necessitates the use of biodegradable materials that break down in the body without harming it but have an extremely accurate external structure and small pores,” said Levenberg. “We estimate that it will be possible to tailor our technology to other applications, such as nasal reconstruction and fabrication of various orthopedic implants.” To read the original article click here.

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Rapid 3D Printing Method Moves Toward 3D-Printed Organs

AHA Publisher — Mon, 08 Mar 2021 08:00:07 +0000

University at Buffalo via EurekAlert – BUFFALO, N.Y. — It looks like science fiction: A machine dips into a shallow vat of translucent yellow goo and pulls out what becomes a life-sized hand. But the seven-second video, which is sped-up from 19 minutes, is real. The hand, which would take six hours to create using conventional 3D printing methods, demonstrates what University at Buffalo engineers say is progress toward 3D-printed human tissue and organs — biotechnology that could eventually save countless lives lost due to the shortage of donor organs. “The technology we’ve developed is 10-50 times faster than the industry standard, and it works with large sample sizes that have been very difficult to achieve previously,” says the study’s co-lead author Ruogang Zhao, PhD, associate professor of biomedical engineering. The work is described in a study published Feb. 15 in the journal Advanced Healthcare Materials. It centers on a 3D printing method called stereolithography and jelly-like materials known as hydrogels, which are used to create, among things, diapers, contact lenses and scaffolds in tissue engineering. The latter application is particularly useful in 3D printing, and it’s something the research team spent a major part of its effort optimizing to achieve its incredibly fast and accurate 3D printing technique. “Our method allows for the rapid printing of centimeter-sized hydrogel models. It signi?cantly reduces part deformation and cellular injuries caused by the prolonged exposure to the environmental stresses you commonly see in conventional 3D printing methods,” says the study’s other co-lead author, Chi Zhou, PhD, associate professor of industrial and systems engineering. Researchers say the method is particularly suitable for printing cells with embedded blood vessel networks, a nascent technology expected to be a central part of the production of 3D-printed human tissue and organs. To read the original article click here.

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Researchers Use Hot Nano-Chisel to Create Artificial Bones in a Petri Dish

AHA Publisher — Wed, 10 Feb 2021 08:00:25 +0000

NYU Tandon School of Engineering via EurekAlert – BROOKLYN, New York, Monday, February 8, 2021 — A holy grail for orthopedic research is a method for not only creating artificial bone tissue that precisely matches the real thing, but does so in such microscopic detail that it includes tiny structures potentially important for stem cell differentiation, which is key to bone regeneration. Researchers at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering and New York Stem Cell Foundation Research Institute (NYSF) have taken a major step by creating the exact replica of a bone using a system that pairs biothermal imaging with a heated “nano-chisel.” In a study, “Cost and Time Effective Lithography of Reusable Millimeter Size Bone Tissue Replicas with Sub-15 nm Feature Size on a Biocompatible Polymer,” which appears in the journal Advanced Functional Materials, the investigators detail a system allowing them to sculpt, in a biocompatible material, the exact structure of the bone tissue, with features smaller than the size of a single protein — a billion times smaller than a meter. This platform, called, bio-thermal scanning probe lithography (bio-tSPL), takes a “photograph” of the bone tissue, and then uses the photograph to produce a bona-fide replica of it. The team, led by Elisa Riedo, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at NYU Tandon, and Giuseppe Maria de Peppo, a Ralph Lauren Senior Principal Investigator at the NYSF, demonstrated that it is possible to scale up bio-tSPL to produce bone replicas on a size meaningful for biomedical studies and applications, at an affordable cost. These bone replicas support the growth of bone cells derived from a patient’s own stem cells, creating the possibility of pioneering new stem cell applications with broad research and therapeutic potential. This technology could revolutionize drug discovery and result in the development of better orthopedic implants and devices. The research, “Cost and time effective lithography of reusable millimeter size bone tissue replicas with sub-15 nm feature size on a biocompatible polymer,” appears in Advanced Functional Materials. In the human body, cells live in specific environments that control their behavior and support tissue regeneration via provision of morphological and chemical signals at the molecular scale. In particular, bone stem cells are embedded in a matrix of fibers — aggregates of collagen molecules, bone proteins, and minerals. The bone hierarchical structure consists of an assembly of micro- and nano- structures, whose complexity has hindered their replication by standard fabrication methods so far. “tSPL is a powerful nanofabrication method that my lab pioneered a few years ago, and it is at present implemented by using a commercially available instrument, the NanoFrazor,” said Riedo. “However, until today, limitations in terms of throughput and biocompatibility of the materials have prevented its use in biological research. We are very excited to have broken these barriers and to have led tSPL into the realm of biomedical applications.” Its time- and cost-effectiveness, as well as the cell compatibility and reusability of the bone replicas, make bio-tSPL an affordable platform for the production of surfaces that perfectly reproduce any biological tissue with unprecedented precision. “I am excited about the precision achieved using bio-tSPL. Bone-mimetic surfaces, such as the one reproduced in this study, create unique possibilities for understanding cell biology and modeling bone diseases, and for developing more advanced drug screening platforms,” said de Peppo. “As a tissue engineer, I am especially excited that this new platform could also help us create more effective orthopedic implants to treat skeletal and maxillofacial defects resulting from injury or disease.” To read the original article click here.

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In First, Doctors Use AR and 3D Tech in Eye-Socket Surgery

AHA Publisher — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 08:00:51 +0000

Naama Barak via Israel21c – In a first-of-its-kind surgery, doctors in northern Israel recently used augmented reality and 3D technology to repair a fracture in the floor of the eye socket of a young patient with optimal clinical results. The 31-year-old patient’s severe injury was causing double vision and impaired the symmetry and aesthetics of his eyes. Prior to the surgery at the Galilee Medical Center, doctors created a 3D model of the patient’s skull and designed and printed out a titanium plate made according to his CT imaging. During the surgery, one of the surgeons wore Microsoft HoloLens augmented reality glasses that projected the software model of the skull and plate onto the patient’s head. This enabled him to place the real-life plate in perfect overlap with the model. The operation lasted 1.5 hours and the patient went home within a few days. “The innovative technology utilizing a 3D printer and augmented reality resulted in both a particularly accurate execution of the operation and a significant reduction in time,” says the Galilee Medical Center’s Dr. Samer Srouji, who led the surgery. “This technology will contribute to improved clinical outcomes and reduce repeated imaging and surgeries. We feel great pride to be at the forefront of and lead in this global technology,” he added. To read the original article click here. For more articles from Israel21c click here.

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Bayer, Tel Aviv University Test Drugs on 3D-Printed Hearts

AHA Publisher — Mon, 13 Jul 2020 07:00:10 +0000

ISRAEL21c staff via Israel21c – Partnership with Bayer calls for developing a platform for cardiotoxicity screening, using human heart tissues 3D-printed in Prof. Tal Dvir’s lab. Human heart tissues 3D-printed in Tel Aviv University Prof. Tal Dvir’s Laboratory for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine will be used to test the cardiotoxicity of experimental drugs according to a collaboration agreement between the university’s tech-transfer company, Ramot, and pharmaceutical giant Bayer. “We are excited to start this new collaboration with Tel Aviv University, which will address a new area of early assessment of safety and tolerability of drug candidates,” said Eckhard von Keutz, head of Translational Sciences at Bayer. “We already have a global network of partners and this new project will enable Bayer to expand its open innovation activities to Israel, which provides a dynamic ecosystem for innovation in biotech and medical research.” Last April, Dvir’s lab successfully produced the first-ever 3D-printed heart using tissue extracted from a patient. This innovative technology has the potential to revolutionize drug screening. Drug candidates go through several phases of screening. First, the new compound is tested on human tissue cultures in Petri dishes. Then, it is administered to lab animals. Finally, the drug is approved for human clinical trials. Dvir’s 3D-printed tissues could make the process faster, cheaper and more efficient. “In a Petri dish, all the cells line up in 2D, and it’s only one type of cell,” said Dvir. “In contrast, our engineered tissues are 3D-printed, and therefore better resemble real heart tissues. Our printed tissues contain cardiac muscle, blood vessels and the extracellular matrix which connects the different cells biochemically, mechanically and electrically. Moving away from Petri dishes to 3D printed tissues could significantly improve drug tests, saving precious time and money with the hope of producing safer and more effective medication.” Dvir hopes eventually to offer Bayer the ability to do pre-clinical trials on complete printed organs. “Our end goal is to engineer whole human hearts, including all the different chambers, valves, arteries and veins – the best analogue of this complex organ – for an even better toxicological screening process.” Ramot licensed the technology to a spin-off company, Matricelf, whose first focus is on engineering personalized spinal-cord implants to treat paralyzed patients. To read the original article click here. For more articles from Israel21c click here.

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New Discovery Allows 3D Printing of Sensors Directly on Expanding Organs

AHA Publisher — Mon, 29 Jun 2020 07:00:29 +0000

University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering via Newswise – In groundbreaking new research, mechanical engineers and computer scientists at the University of Minnesota have developed a 3D printing technique that uses motion capture technology, similar to that used in Hollywood movies, to print electronic sensors directly on organs that are expanding and contracting. The new 3D printing technique could have future applications in diagnosing and monitoring the lungs of patients with COVID-19. The research is published in Science Advances, a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The new research is the next generation of a 3D printing technique discovered two years ago by members of the team that allowed for printing of electronics directly on the skin of a hand that moved left to right or rotated. The new technique allows for even more sophisticated tracking to 3D print sensors on organs like the lungs or heart that change shape or distort due to expanding and contracting. “We are pushing the boundaries of 3D printing in new ways we never even imagined years ago,” said Michael McAlpine, a University of Minnesota mechanical engineering professor and senior researcher on the study. “3D printing on a moving object is difficult enough, but it was quite a challenge to find a way to print on a surface that was deforming as it expanded and contracted.” The researchers started in the lab with a balloon-like surface and a specialized 3D printer. They used motion capture tracking markers, much like those used in movies to create special effects, to help the 3D printer adapt its printing path to the expansion and contraction movements on the surface. The researchers then moved on to an animal lung in the lab that was artificially inflated. They were able to successfully print a soft hydrogel-based sensor directly on the surface. McAlpine said the technique could also possibly be used in the future to 3D print sensors on a pumping heart. “The broader idea behind this research, is that this is a big step forward to the goal of combining 3D printing technology with surgical robots,” said McAlpine, who holds the Kuhrmeyer Family Chair Professorship in the University of Minnesota Department of Mechanical Engineering. “In the future, 3D printing will not be just about printing but instead be part of a larger autonomous robotic system. This could be important for diseases like COVID-19 where health care providers are at risk when treating patients.” Other members of the research team included lead author Zhijie Zhu, a University of Minnesota mechanical engineering Ph.D. candidate, and Hyun Soo Park, an assistant professor in the University of Minnesota Department of Computer Science and Engineering. The research was supported by Medtronic (for sensor development) and the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number DP2EB020537. Additional support was provided by a University of Minnesota Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship awarded to Zhijie Zhu. To read the original article click here.

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