As
of lately, there has been intense competition to perfection and petition
medical technology based on 3D printing. Its produce range from body parts to
printed lightweight casts, and both amateurs and institutions of all sizes are
included amongst participants. In the endeavor to use 3D-printed skin to treat
burns and lesions, another major contender that has been revealed is the US
Army. However, considering that competition has crossed the US borders, an
award-winning Canadian team has made the most recent contribution.
Arianna McAllister as well as Lian Leng, both engineering students from the University of Toronto, engineered the PrintAlive Bioprinter for the 2014 James Dyson Awards program. Consequently they won the first prize of $3,500, along with the opportunity to compete for $50,000 with 18 international teams from all over the globe. The non-profit James Dyson Foundation uses its annual award program to encourage and feature helpful and problem-solving industrial or product designs from students in the engineering and scientific fields.
The Toronto team has successfully addressed a twofold problem. First, damage to both the dermis and the epidermis, both containing various cells and structures, is often caused by severe burns. Therefore, specialized treatments are required. In cases like these, the body is not able to easily regenerate itself. To prevent fatalities, it is crucial to be able to close those wounds rapidly. The second issue that has been tackled by the team was the need to use 3D printers to produce flexible and skin-like materials, which would last during grafting procedures. Traditional 3D printers only work effectively with harder materials. Moreover, it has not been possible to structure skin grafts involving intricate layering of various cells.
The students worked together with the help of Boyang Zhang Dr. Marc Jeschke and Professor Axel Guenther to develop a printer cartridge that has never been developed before. Tiny channels are contained in this special cartridge, with a liquid environment containing skin cells filled inside those channels. Before printing, the dermis and epidermis cells, and that specialized liquid, are all kept in two different channels. The printing process dispenses a liquid form of the artificial skin into yet another liquid, until it solidifies into a gel. Then the printer prints the two solidified layers together, on top of each other, as a result of which a biodegradable dressing is generated, containing the skin cells required for treating deep skin wounds.
Until now, the grafts of human skin printed from the PrintAlive Bioprinter have been successfully used to heal wounds in immune-compromised mice. Soon, the team will hopefully be working in pigs using larger grafts, and after that human clinical trials will begin within 2 to 3 years. According to reports by the US army, clinical trials of the army’s own skin-printing technology will also begin this summer. All that remains now is the find out whether it will be the Canadian team that will surpass the US Army or vice versa, and in any case, both are striving for a common goal.
Arianna McAllister as well as Lian Leng, both engineering students from the University of Toronto, engineered the PrintAlive Bioprinter for the 2014 James Dyson Awards program. Consequently they won the first prize of $3,500, along with the opportunity to compete for $50,000 with 18 international teams from all over the globe. The non-profit James Dyson Foundation uses its annual award program to encourage and feature helpful and problem-solving industrial or product designs from students in the engineering and scientific fields.
The Toronto team has successfully addressed a twofold problem. First, damage to both the dermis and the epidermis, both containing various cells and structures, is often caused by severe burns. Therefore, specialized treatments are required. In cases like these, the body is not able to easily regenerate itself. To prevent fatalities, it is crucial to be able to close those wounds rapidly. The second issue that has been tackled by the team was the need to use 3D printers to produce flexible and skin-like materials, which would last during grafting procedures. Traditional 3D printers only work effectively with harder materials. Moreover, it has not been possible to structure skin grafts involving intricate layering of various cells.
The students worked together with the help of Boyang Zhang Dr. Marc Jeschke and Professor Axel Guenther to develop a printer cartridge that has never been developed before. Tiny channels are contained in this special cartridge, with a liquid environment containing skin cells filled inside those channels. Before printing, the dermis and epidermis cells, and that specialized liquid, are all kept in two different channels. The printing process dispenses a liquid form of the artificial skin into yet another liquid, until it solidifies into a gel. Then the printer prints the two solidified layers together, on top of each other, as a result of which a biodegradable dressing is generated, containing the skin cells required for treating deep skin wounds.
Until now, the grafts of human skin printed from the PrintAlive Bioprinter have been successfully used to heal wounds in immune-compromised mice. Soon, the team will hopefully be working in pigs using larger grafts, and after that human clinical trials will begin within 2 to 3 years. According to reports by the US army, clinical trials of the army’s own skin-printing technology will also begin this summer. All that remains now is the find out whether it will be the Canadian team that will surpass the US Army or vice versa, and in any case, both are striving for a common goal.
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