Researchers in the US have demonstrated a new biomanufacturing process that is claimed to represent a major advance in the use of 3D printing for the repair and even replacement of human organs.

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Researchers around the world are exploring the potential of 3D printing for producing human tissue. Image: lucadp via stock.adobe.com Whilst a number of groups have already demonstrated the use of 3D printing to build living tissue constructs in the shape of human organs these have lacked the cellular density and organ-level functions required for them to be used in organ repair and replacement.

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The new so-called SWIFT technique (sacrificial writing into functional tissue), developed by researchers from Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), is claimed to overcome that hurdle by 3D printing vascular channels into living matrices composed of stem-cell-derived organ building blocks (OBBs). […]

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