scientific research area and in the next
few years it will revolutionize
healthcare as we know it as we speak
biofabrication researchers all around
the world are using 3d printing to
create human body parts and not just
models or prosthetics they’re creating
fully functional biological structures
which will be able to repair replace and
restore entire human tissues and organs
they will be custom-made to the exact
shape and size to fit each individual
person so let’s meet John here who
unfortunately has had a terrible bicycle
accident using medical scanning a 3d
model of John’s injury can be created on
the computer this is then sent to a
specialized biofabrication 3d printer a
scaffold can now be made layer by layer
which will mechanically support the
injury as it heals
also a patient’s own cells can be added
to the scaffold that way the cells will
start to grow inside the construct and
replace the tissue once the scaffold is
implanted back into John the cells will
start to restore the lost bone and the
scaffold will dissolve over time in just
a few years john’s injury will be
completely mended and that’s just one of
the ways that we hope biofabrication
will revolutionize the treatment of not
only injuries such as John’s but also
organ failure and tissue loss as a
result of genetic birth defects injuries
so biofabrication is a brand new
research field just a child really in
the family tree of scientific
disciplines in fact it’s basically the
baby of three pre-existing research
fields tissue engineering and
regenerative medicine have largely the
same goals as biofabrication but they
focus on the biological construction of
tissues using cells and biological
molecules seeded onto prefabricated
scaffolds or matrices and together these
grow and develop into biological
structures in parallel 3d printing has
been rapidly growing in popularity in a
wide range of industries around the
world architects are using 3d printing
to create scale models of their designs
while even NASA are using specialized
metal 3d printers to create parts for
their rocket engines there are a number
of aspects of 3d printing which are most
attractive to tissue engineering and
regenerative medicine and have driven
the crossover of 3d printing into the
field of biofabrication 3d printing as a
layer by layer technique has the ability
to fabricate fine detail both on the
inside and the outside of a structure
interlocking parts can be made in one go
without the need for further assembly
and most importantly 3d printing is an
additive technique so only the exact
amount of material required for a
structure is added and this saves
material wastage so to create a 3d
printed object you first need a computer
model this can be based on drawings such
as engineering sketches or else imaging
data from a camera in biofabrication
medical scan data is used to create and
design the implants what this means is
that each part that’s printed can be
customized and planned before it is sent
to the 3d printer these research fields
have converged at the optimal time into
this exciting multidisciplinary research
field which has made massive advances in
just the last decade
in the future we hope that this
technology will be available in
hospitals all around the world to create
functional on-demand 3d printed human
tissues and organs for rapid
transplantation to treat a wide range of
defects in America nearly a hundred and
twenty thousand people are currently
listed on the organ transplant waiting
list each of these people requires a
life-saving organ a heart a liver or a
kidney to replace theirs which might be
damaged or diseased but last year only
31,000 transplants were performed in
fact 22 people on the waiting lists died
every day where they couldn’t get the
life-saving organ donation they needed
so how can biofabrication help imagine a
future where in every hospital and
surgery room around the world a 3d
printer is installed ready to fabricate
a personalized heart a lung or a
pancreas fit every patient who needs one
in 2011 professor Anthony Atala famously
3d printed a human kidney live on stage
during his TED presentation this is such
a fantastic example of some of the
research being done around the world to
like John from our earlier example many
people around the world suffer from
significant tissue loss many patients
who are diagnosed with certain types of
cancer may have to have large portions
of tissue removed to destroy the cancer
and to prevent the further spread of
disease for example people diagnosed
with breast cancer may have to have
large amounts of breast tissue removed
or else bone in the case of bone cancer
in the future we hope these patients
will have access to personalized 3d
printed pieces of tissue these scaffolds
will restore the lost tissue and
completely heal these patient’s defects
now this is not only important for the
functionality of tissues like bones for
example which must be strong and healthy
so we can move but the psychological
effects of tissue loss can have a major
impact on a person’s mental health their
confidence and their sense of identity
particularly for more visible defects
like those in the facial region having
the ability to completely restore these
defects using patient specific materials
may have an enormous impact on a
patient’s quality of life another
example of how biofabrication is going
to have such a major impact is the
treatment of joint conditions many of us
in this room might know someone may be a
parent or a grandparent who has had to
have a knee or a hip replacement in many
cases this operation is performed as a
result of a degenerative condition which
affects the cartilage in our joints
cartilage is the strong slippery
substance which helps our joints move
smoothly but in the cases where the
cartilage is so damaged the entire joint
has to be replaced with large metal
implants in the future biofabrication
researchers hope that these patients
will be able to receive a 3d printed
piece of cartilage tissue this scaffold
will restore this slippery joint coating
and leave the patients with fully
functioning joints again so now we can
see how biofabrication is going to have
such a major impact on healthcare we
hope it will save lives provide an
immediate answer for patients who
require an organ donation and improve
the quality of care of those suffering
from diseases or trauma so you might be
wondering where I fit into the picture
of biofabrication research I’ve been
studying biofabrication for two years
now in a specialized master’s program
I’ve come here to Germany all the way
from Australia to study in one of the
foremost labs in the world to develop
new ways to 3d print bone and cartilage
tissues but I’m not a biologist
or a chemist or a medical doctor I have
a physics degree so what can I possibly
bring to the table in a bio fabrication
lab here in Bert’s burg I’ve learnt
something pretty crucial to studying
biofabrication
most biologists don’t know how to write
code which is the language 3d printers
speak but most physicists and
mathematicians don’t have a clue how to
keep cells alive I don’t know how to
synthesize new materials to suspend and
sustain cells in complex polymer
networks but my chemistry colleagues
need my help to program a 3d printer to
dispense multiple materials at the same
time to create complex tissue structures
it is this multidisciplinary approach to
biofabrication research which I believe
is the reason why the field has
developed so rapidly and will drive by a
fabrication research into the future so
here’s a typical day in the lab here at
the University of würzburg my current
research project is to 3d print
cartilage scaffolds to ultimately
improve joint function to do this a user
specialized biofabrication 3d printer
which can first print a mechanical
scaffold made out of a biodegradable
biocompatible polymer and in the pause a
specialized material called a hydrogel
is deposited that can contain the
patient’s own cells so to do this
research I work very closely with a
number of other team members firstly
biologists extract and carefully grow
cartilage cells these are then loaded
into a hydrogel which is made by
chemists I then take this hydrogel and
load it into our 3d bioprinter to first
make that mechanical support structure
and then in the paws the hydrogel
containing cells ultimately the cells
would grow throughout the scaffold and
it would turn into functional cartilage
tissue it’s my job to make sure that the
3d printer prints this construct
correctly I need to make sure that
enough hydrogel completely fills the
pores that the entire construct
is mechanically strong enough to
withstand the forces in a human leg and
that the cells survive the printing
process studying biofabrication is not
only applying my physics and maths
training but also learning and adapting
to working with other scientists and
engineers who each have their own unique
perspective and approach to solving some
of these complex challenges so
biofabrication has made massive leaps
forward in just the last decade and now
we have all of the equipment we need to
tackle some of the biggest healthcare
challenges in the world but there are
still a number of hurdles to overcome
I’d like to talk about three major
challenges which we face in
biofabrication before this technology
can be introduced into routine clinical
use the first of these challenges is the
concept of vascular ization this is the
blood supply network that connects all
of our tissues and organs in our body
virtually all tissues and organs have to
be connected to this blood supply to
make sure that the cells are fed and
that waste can be removed away and this
holds true for bio fabricated constructs
as well they also have to be connected
to this blood supply to make sure that
the cells get the nutrients they need to
regrow a good example of a solution to
this problem requires the input from all
of these science and engineering
disciplines I’ve been talking about new
3d printers developed by engineers have
the ability to fabricate a fine network
of tubes throughout a bio fabricated
construct in these tubes special cells
can grow and develop into blood vessels
the material that was printed can then
be washed out of the structure and this
leaves a fine network of pores all the
way through the construct which would
then be connected to the blood supply
moving forward it is this continued
multidisciplinary approach to by a
fabrication which is one of the key
reasons why the field has developed so
rapidly using this collaborative
approach we see how each piece of the
puzzle is being developed in parallel to
hell this technology towards routine
clinical use the second major challenge
I’d like to talk about extends outside
of the science lab the legal framework
for the regulation of medical devices
and materials and technologies
biofabrication has made substantial
progress towards clinical trials but
this technology will never be able to be
used in hospitals without the approval
of the governing agencies such as the
European Commission or the Food and Drug
Administration in America who closely
control and regulate the use of
materials treatment options tools and
devices to make sure that they’re used
in the safe and appropriate manner until
now medical device regulation hasn’t had
to do with the concept of 3d printed
constructs which also contain a
patient’s own biological materials in
fact biofabrication falls right through
the cracks of the existing legal
framework world-leading biofabrication
researchers have identified this as one
of the key challenges which could
disrupt the translation of
biofabrication into routine clinical use
this hurt this challenge is being
tackled by researchers and medical
device companies in collaboration with
politicians policy makers governing
agencies and lawyers the final challenge
I’d like to talk to you about is an
ethical challenge let’s say in ten years
time we have the ability to fabricate
any human tissue or organ and it will
completely restore the function of the
damaged tissue or organ now let’s say
after an accident I need a new pair of
lungs but maybe I don’t want replacement
ones like my old lungs
maybe they didn’t work very well or I
had asthma maybe I’d like a better lungs
lungs like Michael Phelps which will let
me hold my breath longer and pump more
oxygen through my body
what about lungs even better than that
what if we can create muscles which are
twice as strong hearts which never fail
or unbreakable bones
the question is how do we define being
human and do we have the right to not
just replace and restore but also
improve the function of human tissues
and organs using biofabrication this is
a question I certainly don’t know the
answer to but is a considerable ethical
issue for future generations to tackle
until then we hope the power of
biofabrication research will bring us
the ability to treat everyone on the
organ transplant waiting lists men
diseased bones and cartilage and restore
the function of joints nerves and
muscles to ultimately improve and save
the lives of millions of people around the world thank you