Printer Can Create Artificial Living Tissue

A group of scientists from the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), in Switzerland, announces that it's currently working on developing a very special type of printer, one that will be capable of printing artificial living tissues on command.

The new investigation could finally provide research teams around the world with access to biological samples that would otherwise be very difficult to obtain. In turn, this will help scientists develop new treatments for various conditions, and also make it easier for them to test new drugs.

The Swiss team says that the technology development effort is still in its earliest stages, but add that progress thus far has been encouraging. Various research teams have been trying to obtain artificial living material for a long time, but the EPFL team appears to be closest to this objective.

When completed, their special printer will be able to create living constructs whose structure will be nearly identical to that of human tissues. Naturally, the instrument will be able to create a wide array of tissue types, including those researchers know are affected in a wide array of diseases.

Even if artificial in nature, the cells in these constructs will interact in a coordinated, physiological manner, exactly how they do inside naturally-occurring tissues. The team already published a study on the approach in the latest issue of the esteemed journal Advanced Materials, PhysOrg reports.

“We have not yet created tissue, strictly speaking. At this stage, we have essentially studied a way in which to structure biological materials in three dimensions; this research will improve cell culture and then will eventually be used as a base for creating tissues,” says scientist Jürgen Brügger.

He holds an appointment as a professor and the head of the Microsystems 1 Laboratory at EPFL. Experts from the Engineering School (STI) and School of Life Sciences (SV) are working together on making the new printer a reality.

According to Professor Matthias Lutolf, who is the head of EPFL Stem Cell Engineering Laboratory, one of the main challenges involves using the right materials in the printer. The risk of cells growing randomly, in an unorganized manner inside the artificial tissues, is very large.

“Mixing the right ingredients isn’t sufficient. The cells grow in a haphazard manner, randomly, and won’t develop into viable tissue,” he concludes.