The device, developed out of collaboration between ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES) researchers and orthopaedic surgeons at St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne, is designed to allow surgeons to sculpt customised cartilage implants during surgery.
The team designed the BioPen with the practical constraints of surgery in mind and fabricated it using 3D printed medical grade plastic and titanium. The device is small, lightweight, ergonomic and sterilisable. It uses a hydrogel bio-ink to carry and support living human stem cells, and a low powered light source to solidify the ink, the pen is claimed to deliver a cell survival rate in excess of 97%.
3D bioprinters can be used to print cells, layer-by-layer, to build up artificial tissues for implantation. But in some applications, such as cartilage repair, the exact geometry of an implant cannot be precisely known prior to surgery. This makes it difficult to pre-prepare an artificial cartilage implant.
Professor Peter Choong, director of Orthopaedics at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne, developed the concept with ACES Director Professor Gordon Wallace. “The development of this type of technology is only possible with interactions between scientists and clinicians - clinicians to identify the problem and scientists to develop a solution,” Prof Choong said.
