Researchers at Utrecht University Are One Step Closer to 3D Bioprinting Organans. The New Technique, Called Grace, Can Use Artificial Intelligence to Think For Itself and Make Suggestions When Printing Human Tissue.
3D Printing Organs Sounds Like An Episode of the Sci-Fi Show Star Trek , But According to Researcher Riccardo Levato, It is Ultimately the Goal of his Work. At Utrecht University and the Utrecht UMC, he and his team are researching the printing of tissue, such as a piece of bone. His Team Recently published the Research in The Scientific Journal Nature .
The 3D Printing of Tissue by Levato’s Team is Slightly Different than 3D Printing items in, For Example, A workshop. When making, for example, a key ring or wall decoration, the 3D printer prints with plastic layer by layer until the design is finished.
Levato uses a gel containing cells of human tissue and proteins. “The gel is Sensitive to Light and Hardens when we shine it on it,” he explains to nu.nl. “We let the bioprinter Shine on Certain Spots near the cells in the gel.” This creates a Network or Blood Vessels around the cells. The Cells Need these to Receive Oxygen and Nutrients and Thus Stay Alive.
Previously, such a design for the bioprinter was made by people. “The design must come Exactly around the cells in the gel, but we do not know in advance where Exactly Those Cells are in the gel,” Says Levato. The New Technology Called Grace Can See this with Artificial Intelligence and An Imaging System. Grace Then Makes Suggestions about which design will create the tissue that will live long as quickly and smartly as Possible. You can see a scan of such a design in the image below.
Printing Organs Against Waiting Lists
Accordance to Levato, Printing Organans to Help People Who Need A New Organ is Still A Step Too Early. “Everyone in this Field Wants us to anyful be able to print organans, but there is still a lot of work to be done.”
The Printed Tissue Can Now Already Help With Testing Medicines. “You can inject the printed tissue from a patient with a medicine to test it,” Says Levato. This way you can see how a patient would react to a medicine. Medicines can be tested much faster, which Saves a lot of time and money in the research process.
Ultimately, The Researcher Hopes that we can Therefore Create Much More Personal Research Models for Specific Patients in the Clinic. “You can then precisely tailor the administration of medicines based on a small piece of printed tissue from a patient,” Says Levato. You then know what works best, without endangering the patient or use test animals for it.