This 3D Printer Works In Your Body to Repair Bones and Guts
3D printing technology has come a long way in the past few years—and one of its most promising applications is in medicine. Not only have we seen it be used to create artificial bones and tendons, but it’s even capable of making skin that can feel (which is a lot less creepy than it sounds).
Now a multi-university team of scientists have taken it a step further and created a 3D printer that goes inside the human body. That’s the idea behind a new study published Thursday in the journal Science into a new method that allows researchers to use ultrasonic waves to “print” structures through layers of biomaterials like skin, muscle, and bone.
The technique is known as Deep-Penetrating Acoustic Volumetric Printing (DAVP), and relies on a specially designed substance called “sono-ink” to create different structures within the human body.