drvarun sqMedical 3D Printing & Bioprinting

Dr Varun Tyagi is a medical doctor who practices in India and writes about remarkable and historical landmarks throughout the medical world.  Dr Varun believes that 3D printing can help democratize medical care, making medical devices affordable and available to everyone on the planet.

Details

hydrogel 800x450

In a new research report, detailed in the Journal of Advanced Materials, researchers have discovered a way of creating hydrogels that are “extremely tough and robust”, while also being compatible with the encapsulation of cells within the structure itself.

"The innovation is really about the material — a new ink for 3-D printing of biocompatible tough hydrogel,” explained Xuanhe Zhao, MIT associate professor of mechanical engineering and one of the co-authors of the paper, titled 3D Printing of Highly Stretchable and Tough Hydrogels into Complex, Cellularized Structures. “Specifically, a composite of two different biopolymers. Each [material] individually is very weak and brittle, but once you put them together, it becomes very tough and strong. It’s like steel-reinforced concrete."