3D printing bone tissue

New research reviews how advanced materials can be used to 3D print human bones.

University of Wollongong (UOW) researchers at the Intelligent Polymer Research Institute (IPRI) have recently published work on bone tissue engineering. The new article explores the current landscape of laser-based 3D printing in the context of bone tissue engineering.

Titled ‘Laser Sintering Approaches for Bone Tissue Engineering’, the review outlines how we can use 3D printing, in the form of powder bed fusion, to replace or stimulate the growth of human bone tissue.

Together with collaborators from the Queensland University of Technology (Dr. Naomi Paxton and Prof. Mia Woodruff), Monash University (Dr. Philip Lewis) and industry partner, Anatomics (Robert Thompson), the work provides a materials insight into the technical and regulatory hurdles research bone tissue engineering research must overcome to successfully print human bone.  

UOW PhD candidate and recent APR Intern Jeremy Dinoro was behind the paper, with input from Director of IPRI Prof Gordon Wallace and A/Prof Stephen Beirne. The author would like to acknowledge the support from the Australian Research Council Industrial Transformation Training Centre in Additive Biomanufacturing Training Hub and Anatomics.

The open access publication can be found here.