Miniature 3D Printed Organs Used For Testing Vaccines

Doctors at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine are using miniature human organs that have been produced with a modified 3D printer to test new vaccines.

The “body on a chip” project has been backed by the US Department of Defense with $24 million. These are the first tests to combine several organs on the same device, which then model the human response to chemical toxins or biological agents.

Structures that mimic the functions of the heart, lung, liver and bloood vessels with human cells are placed onto a microchip and connected with a blood substitute, similar to the type used in trauma surgery. This substitute keeps the cells alive and is also used as a carrier for the chemical or biological agents and potential therapies that will enter the system.

Dr Anothony Atala, institute director at Wake Forest said, “You are actually testing human tissue. It works better than testing on animals.”

Dr Atala also explained that the bioprinting technology was first used to build tissue and organs for replacement in patients. At Wake Forest, the team has managed to successfully replicate skin, blood vessels and even organs like the bladder and stomach. But organs like the heart or kidney have been the biggest achievement yet.

“There are so many cells per centimetre that making a big organ is quite complex,” said Dr Atala. It take 30 minutes to print a minature heart the size of a small biscuit.

The US Department of Defense are hoping that these tests will “significantly decrease the time and cost needed to develop medical countermeasures” for bioterrorism attacks said Dr Clint Florence from the Translational Medical Division at DTRA. Wake Forest said it was able to test for antidotes to sarin gas, recently used against civilians in Syria.

[Image via Live Science]

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24125678

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Superhuman Robots With Artificial Muscles: A Reality

No matter what Hollywood tells us about killer robots chasing us and tearing us limb from limb, the reality is that; pound for pound, robots are nowhere near as strong as humans. Until now that is. Now there is a distinct possibility that in the future, there will be superhuman robots with artificial muscles.

A team at the National University of Singapore (NUS) has developed a robot artificial muscle which is incredibly close to real muscle.

Human vs. Robot

As it stands now, robots have a very distinct way of moving (think of the robot dance). Humans move in with a smooth fluid motion. The reason humans can maintain such control over our movements comes down to our muscles which produce force and motion. The longer a muscle stretches, the more weight it can support and the more control of movement it allows.

Artificial muscles have been developed, used and studied for many years now. The relationship between artificial muscles and prosthetic limbs is forever marching forward. However, scientists have only ever been able to develop an artificial muscle that stretches up to three times its original length. This poses serious problems when it comes to strength and control. The average robot can only lift objects half of its weight.

Another win for humans is our ability to react within a fraction of a second. Robots often take longer to react and then have to wait for a mechanism to kick in before they move. All in all, humans wouldn’t have anything to worry about in a hand to robot hand combat situation.

Next Generation Robots

Dr. Koh and his team at NUS have developed an artificial muscle that not only has several attributes that are closer to the human muscle than any other artificial substitute from the past:

• Pliable – The polymer used as the muscle, which is based on a rubber material, is workable and moves very much like a human muscle.


• Reaction – Electrical pulses cause the muscle to move, just as electrical pulses sent to our brains tell us to move our muscles. This means that the reaction time for the artificial muscle is nearly the same as a humans.


• Energy – The team found that the polymer produces energy as a bi-product. It’s thought that this could mean the production of essentially environmentally friendly robots that can power themselves after a small amount of charging.

Superhuman Strength

So far, the team at NUS have developed a muscle that can stretch to 5 times its original length and is able to carry a weight up to 80 times heavier than itself. Although Koh is understandably proud of his team for their achievement, they estimated that the polymer actually has the potential to stretch up to 10 times its original length. This would enable it to lift loads up to 500 times its own weight.

The future robots that use this form of artificial muscle will be more human like than any of the transformer style robots we’ve seen in the past. And they will undoubtedly win any arm wrestling match on Earth.

[Image via Nevsedoma]

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