A team of engineers from the University of Florida unveiled the new 3D printing technology in a paper, which they published in the journal Science Advances.
Thomas Angelini, one of the lead authors of the paper, explained that "it goes from being about melting certain materials and limiting yourself to structures that can't collapse while being printed to just placing those objects in 3D space wherever you want."
This incredible machine draws 3D objects out of living human cells http://t.co/PUb0bgujw5 pic.twitter.com/9ieuS44cNZ
— Popular Mechanics (@PopMech) 25 сентября 2015
"As long as you can push a material out of a needle—and have it be trapped by the [embedding medium] — there's no limit to what you may print with," he said.
3D printing of objects out of human cells…difficult 2 understand but wow! of course @kyrah knew that all along:) https://t.co/syP2sDlz8G
— Michael Doczy (@MDoczy) 27 сентября 2015
The samples include a silicone jellyfish, as well as sculptures that have been made from human aortic cells and cells grown from a patient.
Surprisingly, the machine is capable of printing at a resolution which is one percent of the width of a human hair.
As far as the practical applications of the machine are concerned, they reportedly could range from flexible electronics to creating living organ tissue.
