Self-assembling cellular blobs have been used to print tissue tubes, suggesting that they could form the basis of a biological ink for devices that print organs on demand.

The “bio-ink” was created by Gabor Forgacs and colleagues from the departments of physics and biology at the University of Missouri-Columbia.



“A large part of the body is made of tubes,” says Forgacs. “We can now make 3D hollow biological tubes and organ modules, which potentially could be used as grafts, or for doing research on a particular drug using an organ substitute and thus avoiding any hazard.”



More here.