News and Insights of 3D Printing and Manufacturing
Cresent, an Indian hornbill at ZooTampa in Florida, USA, has become the first bird to receive restorative surgery after developing a life-threatening tumor. The tumor was located under Crecent’s casque, without which her sinuses would be left exposed. The surgery saw her casque being replaced using biocompatible 3D printing technology.
The findings, published by a University College London (UCL)-led research team, improve the prospects of how 3D printers could be integrated into rapid-paced clinical settings for the on-demand production of personalized medicines. For the current study, the researchers loaded printlets (printed tablets) with paracetamol – one of many medicines that can be produced using 3D printing.
Evonik is expanding its portfolio of 3D printable biomaterials for medical technology: The specialty chemicals company has developed VESTAKEEP iC4800 3DF, a new osteoconductive PEEK filament, for 3D printed implants, that improves fusion between bone and implants. The high-performance polymer can be processed in common extrusion-based 3D printing technologies such as fused filament fabrication (FFF).
CurifyLabs and Natural Machines have entered a strategic partnership to develop a technology that enables customized medicine production through 3D printing – producing personalized medicines for human and veterinary patients, on-site in pharmacies and hospitals. Compounding is the manual preparation of individualized drug treatments for patients where an optimal treatment cannot be achieved with the currently available medicinal products. There are many talented pharmacists who are able to compound drugs manually but the process is ineffective and lacks quality control.
Remember when, in 2017, scientists 3D printed an artificial ovary and implanted it into a sterile mouse, which later gave birth to healthy pups? Now, science has gone one step further by 3D printing testicular cells – showing promising early signs of sperm-producing capabilities.
Additive manufacturing solutions provider Eplus3D entered a partnership with Austrian industry experts HAGI and ISG Dental. Both partners have extensive experience in their respective industries and will therefore help to find suitable process solutions for local customers.
Researchers from the Buchmann Institute for Molecular Life Sciences at Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, have used the microArch S140, a microscale 3D printer from Boston Micro Fabrication (BMF), to help fabricate miniaturized vessels called hydrowells for culturing 3D cellular spheroids under microgravity conditions. The effort was part of the Spheroid Aggregation and Viability in Space, or SHAPE, experiment, which is supported by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and will be performed aboard the International Space Station (ISS), where scientific research is performed in low-earth orbit.
3D Systems and Saremco Dental AG entered a strategic partnership to accelerate innovation in digital dentistry. This effort brings together the power of 3D Systems’ industry-leading NextDent digital dentistry solution with Saremco’s materials science expertise – enabling dental laboratories and clinics to address a variety of indications with unparalleled accuracy, repeatability, productivity, and lower total cost. To facilitate these capabilities, the companies are also announcing the immediate availability of CROWNTEC material to be used with 3D Systems’ NextDent 5100 dental 3D printer and industry-leading software for the production of patient-specific permanent crowns.
It was in the air, and now it’s official. TRUMPF has acquired the joint venture with SISMA in Italy completely which means the German company’s additive business will now focus on the medical and dental businesses as well.
A Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust patient was the first person in the world to be supplied solely with a fully digital 3D printed prosthetic eye on 25 November 2021. He first tried his eye on 11 November alongside a traditional acrylic prosthetic. By going home on 25 November with just his printed eye, he is the first patient to use a 3D printed eye as their sole prosthetic.