In what appears to be a world first, a patient’s own cells were expanded and used to 3D print tissue—an ear—that was then implanted under the patient’s skin, The New York Times reports. The milestone, also announced today in a press release by 3DBio Therapeutics, the company that developed the technology, has not yet been reported in a peer-reviewed journal. But experts say it is a step toward one day producing more complex tissues, and potentially even organs, for transplantation using similar techniques.
“It’s definitely a big deal,” Adam Feinberg, a biomedical engineer at Carnegie Mellon University who is not affiliated with 3DBio, tells the Times. “It shows this technology is not an ‘if’ anymore, but a ‘when.’” Feinberg cofounded FluidForm, another company working toward 3D printing replacement tissues.
According to 3DBio’s announcement, the implantation was part of a clinical trial of the technology that includes 11 patients with microtia, ...
