“Frankentissue” represents furtive first steps to printing living human tissue through an inkjet printer.
Discover Magazine has published a comic from the University of Wollongong detailing the process of its forthcoming bio-ink noted as “a step toward printing living human tissue on an inkjet printer”, which you can read below.
All images attributed to Perrin Ireland.
The experiment was focused around production of tailored tissues suitable for surgery, mentioning living band-aids, that would be manufactured layer-by-layer with an inkjet printer.
Discover comments on the ethical nature of the experiment, noting that developments may lead to experimentation on bioengineered human tissue however remarked favourably on such tests “yielding more accurate results, and printing makes them easily reproducible. It’s a perfect playground for expanding experimental frontiers”.