Bioscience News - GEG Tech top picks

An Australian hospital is becoming the first to receive a dedicated 3D tissue-printing facility. The new facility will be used to print new cartilage and bone for patients, and is the first step to on-demand organ printing in the hospital of the future.

Ozbolat and his research team developed a method to produce larger scale tissues without using a scaffold. They create a tiny -- from 3 to 5 one hundredths of an inch in diameter -- tube made of alginate, an algae extract. They inject cartilage cells into the tube and allow them to grow for about a week and adhere to each other. Because cells do not stick to alginate, they can remove the tube and are left with a strand of cartilage. The researchers reported their results in the current issue of Scientific Reports.