3D Printer Uses 'Living Ink' for a Future in Organ Transplants

Traditional 3D printers use powdery metals and plastics as their ink. Now, functional living ink (or "Flink") made from embedded bacteria could allow 3D printers to make living materials capable of degrading toxins and facilitating organ transplants. Researchers have demonstrated this capability in a recent paper in Science Advances  . They printed materials embedded with the bacterium Acetobacter xylinum, which makes cellulose that can be used as scaffolds for skin replacements and coatings for biomedical devices that help protect patients against organ rejections. With Flink, researchers could print these materials in any 3D shape in one step.

Transcript

00:00:01 This is a 3-D printer And it’s ink is alive. Thanks to some helpful bacteria that can do things like degrade pollutants. So the researchers called the new ink, “flink” It’s a Functional Living INK. With Flink, researchers can make functional material in any shape. They can even put one kind of helpful bacteria here, and a different kind there.

00:00:29 And the printed material is strong enough to keep printed shapes. Even complex ones. Flink also has potential uses in medicine, When it’s loaded with bacteria that makes cellulose. With flink, researchers can make cellulose scaffolds that are useful as tissue envelopes for organ transplants And, that may help protect patients against organ rejection.

00:00:54 The researchers also made a scaffold on the uneven and varied surface of a doll’s face. That means the cellulose film could be used for skin grafts as well. Without risking the formation of wrinkles or Creating pockets of material that could trap contaminants ...and that is something to write home about!