Bio-Ink for 3D Printing Inside the Body

Quite a remarkable possibility when linked to medical robotics.

Bio-Ink for 3D Printing Inside the Body
IEEE Spectrum
Charles Q. Choi
July 1, 2020

Researchers at The Ohio State University (OSU) have developed a bio-ink that can be three-dimensionally (3D) printed at human body temperature, and solidified using visible light. Bio-inks are composed of living cells suspended in a gel and are safe for use inside people, potentially paving the way for 3D printing inside the body. Using a 3D printing nozzle affixed to robotic machinery to dispense bio-ink in a controlled manner, the researchers were able to bio-print onto soft materials, with interlocking knobs left beneath the surface anchoring the printed structure to the body like surgical staples. OSU's David Hoelzle said the goal is not to bio-print an entire organ, but to "augment a standard surgery by delivering a biomaterial with a tethered growth factor to jumpstart healing, or a tethered drug to prevent infection. ... We envision a biomaterial bio-ink printing tool as another tool in the surgeon's toolset."  ... ' 

Robotic Blood Vessel Instrument Guidance

Seen this movie.  Pgressin this area continues to evolve

Instrument Guidance Through Deep, Convoluted Blood Vessel Networks
Polytechnique Montreal
December 3, 2019

Researchers at the Polytechnique Montreal Nanorobotics Laboratory in Canada have developed a robotic platform that can guide endovascular surgery through deeper, difficult-to-access blood vessel networks than previously possible. The Fringe Field Navigation (FFN) method taps the magnetic field that the superconducting magnet of a clinical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner produces. The platform utilizes a robotic table positioned within the fringe field by the scanner; this table moves on all axes to position and orient the patient, based on the direction in which a surgical instrument must be guided through the body. The table automatically shifts direction and orientation to position the subject for successive stages of the instrument's journey, with FFN mapping the directional forces of the scanner's magnetic field.  .... "

Robot Prototype for Microsurgery

Seems a considerable advance.   Full and more technical article at the link

Robot Prototype Shows Promise for Microsurgery on Eyes, Aneurysms
By Vanderbilt School of Engineering

Professor Nabil Simaan and Professor Karen Joos
Mechanical Engineering Professor Nabil Simaan and Karen Joos, MD, Joseph N. and Barbara H. Ellis Family Professor of Ophthalmology

Researchers at Vanderbilt University have developed a continuum robot that achieves multi-scale motion and may allow previously impossible complex microsurgeries. The robot can provide both large macro motion workspace as necessary for surgical intervention, as well as small micro motions workspace with motion resolutions of one micron or less.

The miniaturization and range of motion achieved by this technology would allow precise control during procedures on complex aneurysms, tiny veins and arteries, nerves, and the delicate structures of the eye, the inner ear, and the vocal cords.

Said Vanderbilt researcher Nabil Simaan, "This new class of robots will provide micro-precision while traversing macroscale sinuous pathways to the operation site."

From Vanderbilt School of Engineering  .... "