3D printed sensors directly on the organs to monitor them

3D printed sensors directly on the organs to monitor them

    • Home
    • Biomedico
    • 3D printed sensors directly on the organs to monitor them

The motion capture technique, that has been used for several years now in both the cinema and video game industries, today, used in conjunction with 3D printing, can create electronic sensors directly on the organs inside the body.

It is the new technique described in a new study, published in Science Advances. This would be a further improvement of a technique discovered years ago by members of the same team at the University of Minnesota that allowed the printing of electronic components on the skin.

According to researchers, this new technique could allow a much more sophisticated tracking and in general monitoring, through 3D printed sensors, organs such as lungs or treatments, organs that are used to change shape or deform precisely due to their functioning which involves expansion and contraction.

“We’re pushing the boundaries of 3D printing in new ways that weren’t even imagined years ago,” explains Michael McAlpine, a mechanical engineering professor at the University of Minnesota. “3D printing on a moving object is quite difficult, but it was a real challenge to find a way to print on a surface that deformed as it expanded and contracted.” McAlpine is also the senior author of the study.

The motion capture technique was used to help the printer better follow its print path in considering the expanding and contracting movements of the organ surface. The researchers tested the technique on artificially inflated and deflated pig lungs in the laboratory to simulate contraction. On this lung, scientists printed a sensor made of soft hydrogel directly onto its surface.

Source: https://notiziescientifiche.it/sensori-stampati-in-3d-direttamente-sugli-organi-per-monitorarli/

«
»

About The Author

Comments (28)

Leave Comment