Doctors and a tech company have successfully teamed up to implant a 3D printed ear onto a patient for the first time. The patient was a 20-year-old woman with microtia, a condition in which a person is born with one or both of their ears underdeveloped or missing.
Typically, these patients will have their ear(s) reconstructed using rib grafts or synthetic materials. However, new technology from regenerative medicine company 3DBio Therapeutics makes this process easier via 3D printing. A biopsy is taken from the patient’s existing ear to remove cartilage cells, which are then grown and printed into the shape of the existing ear. And because this new appendage was created using the patient's own ear cells, it’s less likely to be rejected when implanted.
“It’s definitely a big deal,” said Adam Feinberg, a professor of biomedical engineering and materials science and engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. “It shows this technology is not an ‘if’ anymore, but a ‘when.’”
