With open source innovation, it is easy, less expensive, and faster to innovate in every fields or endeavour. A recent breakthrough in 3D printing could be a game changer in the field of healthcare. The primary goal of 3D Bioprinting is to make replacement of human organs. This technology will merge the human-made world with the natural world.
Access to Bioprinting Technology
Recently, 3D Bioprinting technology has developed a workable roadmap to overcome some of the engineering challenges encountered in the field of tissue engineering. Some innovative researchers from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) are working on 3D Bioprinting technology to find the better alternative to produce high-quality prints of artificial tissue and replace the expensive Bioprinter.
Meanwhile, a team from the Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) and Biomedical Engineering (BME) departments have recently developed their own low-cost 3D Bioprinter. They have published their designs as an open source so that it is publically accessible to anyone who can build it.
Bioprinting system
The 3D printer was commercially expensive, and proprietary closed source machines were not easily modifiable. The researchers from Carnegie Mellon University set out to change all that. The main aim of the researchers was to democratize the technology and to try to get it into more people’s hands. Therefore, they created a syringe-based, large volume extruder (LVE) which can be modified and can work with almost any open source software or hardware. This innovation was compatible with low cost which makes it inexpensive and widely accessible to the world.
Implication
When we compare our traditional products and parts design to current topologies, we get a glimpse of what is possible in our coming future. Therefore, the present technologies will lower the technical and financial hurdles in the development of 3D cellular biology.