The idea of growing organs or tissue for medical use still sounds like science fiction, and in fact, it’s an incredibly difficult thing to do. 3D printing technology has shown promise in the field of biomanufacturing, but the process is too slow and often damages the tissue you’re working with. Researchers in Germany may have a solution: use holograms and sound fields to quickly assemble matter in 3D.
The process uses acoustic pressure to mold silica gel microspheres and other materials into complex 3D shapes. Achieving it is not easy. The team first had to learn how to create complex layered holographic shapes that were formed from sound, rather than light, and that requires an incredible amount of computational power. “Digitizing a complete 3D object in ultrasound hologram fields is very computationally demanding and required us to come up with a new computational routine,” said one of the team. the researchers said FastCompany.
However, once the hologram is complete, it can be used to mold various materials. The shapes the team has created so far aren’t very big, measuring less than an inch at most, but they are quite complex. Even more impressive, the manufacturing process happens quite quickly: A video included with the published study shows a transparent cube with a cloudy liquid made of silica gel microspheres. Moments later, that cloud condenses into a helix shape.
Other experiments formed shapes using mouse myoblast cells, and lead study author Kai Melde said. FastCompany that the technology had potential to be used for bioprinting in the future. “Ultrasound is gentle and nontoxic to cells,” Melde explained. “And contactless remote assembly helps keep things sterile and cells happy.” The study also explores the idea of using the technology for targeted drug delivery and rapid prototyping. For now, though, the research stands out as an interesting proof-of-concept for rapid, one-step assembly of 3D objects, and a potential much faster alternative to 3D printing in the future.
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