A bioengineering team from
Carnegie Mellon University and the Pittsburgh School of Medicine have presented a way to employ techniques based on inkjet printers to help stem cells become bone tissue cells. The team uses a set of
inkjet-style streams to shoot little bits of proteins (like droplets of printer ink) on top of nurturing proteins (think of them as the paper) in a certain pattern. Then the team drops stems cells on top of the whole concoction, which depending on what bio-ink was used, can turn into bone-type cells or potentially even other cell types. While human trials are still a ways off, let's just hope that bio-ink cartridges aren't nearly as much of a scam as regular
inkjet cartridges are when they reach that point.
[Via
NewScientist]
