Assistant professor of biomedical engineering Robby Bowles led the research team on this groundbreaking 3D printing project. Updates in 3D printing technology allowed medical researchers to print something rarely attempted — printing ligaments and tendons. The innovation came from biomedical engineers from the University of Utah. The new process could give patients with badly damaged tendons, ligaments, or ruptured disks faster recovery times or new, implanted tissues entirely. The researchers published their results in a recent issue of the Journal of Tissue Engineering, Part C: Methods . This process took the Utah team two years to research and develop. The engineers took stem cells from a patient’s body fat and printed them onto a layer of hydrogel. That hydrogel facilitates cell growth in vitro in a culture, forming either a ligament or tendon in the process. That new tissue is then implanted in the injured or affected area. Creating […]

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