Regenerative medicine scientists at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center announced in February that they have created a custom-designed 3-D printer able to bioprint sophisticated ear, bone, and muscle structures.

The tissue structures printed at Wake Forest had the right size, strength, and function for use in humans. And they were able to mature into functional tissue with a system of blood vessels after being implanted inside animals.

Anthony Atala, MD, director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, described the novel tissue and organ printer as an important advance in the field.

"It can fabricate stable, human-scale tissue of any shape. With further development, this technology could potentially be used to print living tissue and organ structures for surgical implantation," Atala said in a news release. 

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[Image courtesy of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center]