The Little Prints

Our bodies are capable of feats of construction that machines can only dream of. Our bones, for example, consist of intricate structures built of a material called calcium phosphate. Replicating complex construction with calcium phosphate at this scale has proved difficult because it tends to clump into unwieldy particles. A new strategy approach mimics the body’s approach to bone formation by using tiny liquid-like bundles of calcium and phosphate that are precursors to structures in bone. They’re smooth, stable, and don’t scatter light so a laser-based 3D printer can sculpt a resin of these clusters into shapes, such as layered spirals mimicking natural materials like lobster claws (left, 3D model, top and microscopic printout, bottom), a micro-bone structure (middle), and a femur cross section (right). This approach could enable engineered bone materials that look and behave more like the real thing for more effective treatments.

Written by Anthony Lewis

Anthony Lewis

Writer

Ant was the web editor in the early days of BPoD, and has since worked with the UK’s top science organisations as a writer and multimedia producer. He now splits his time between freelance work and managing multimedia at The Lancet.

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• Image from work by Iman Roohani and colleagues
• School of Biomedical Engineering, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
• Published in Advanced Materials, February 2025