New Ear's Eve

Cartilage is a tough bendy material that props up our facial features and is difficult to repair – but one day it could be printed to order. This computer design (left) contains instructions similar to those fed into ordinary desktop 3D printers. But printing living tissue has a huge challenge – keeping the unusual building material (rabbit chondrocyte cells) alive. A newly-developed bio-printer uses different coloured lines to guide its nozzles, dolloping patterns of support material (green, blue) around the cells (red) while bathing them in a nurturing environment. The new ear cartilage (right) is peppered with tiny channels that allow vital chemicals to flow during the next phase – when life takes over. It might seem strange that a human ear shape, printed out of rabbit cells, is next transplanted under a mouse’s skin but this allows researchers to see if established life might one day accept a freshly printed transplant.

Written by John Ankers

John Ankers

Writer

A former researcher in systems biology, John is now an online biology tutor and professional coach supporting the wellbeing of scientists and NHS professionals. He's writing, too, of course.

Website

• Images from work by Hyun-Wook Kang and colleagues
• Wake Forest School of Medicine, NC, USA
• Image copyright held by Nature Publishing Group
• Published in Nature Biotechnology, February 2016