3D Printed Bionic Ears
By M. S. Mannoor, Ziwen Jiang, Teena James, Y. Kong, K. Malatesta, W. Soboyejo, Naveen Verma, David H. Gracias, Michael C. McAlpine. Nano letters (Print), 2013
817 citations recorded by the source corpus.
The ability to three-dimensionally interweave biological tissue with functional electronics could enable the creation of bionic organs possessing enhanced functionalities over their human counterparts. Conventional electronic devices are inherently two-dimensional, preventing seamless multidimensional integration with synthetic biology, as the processes and materials are very different. Here, we present a novel strategy for overcoming these difficulties via additive manufacturing of biological cells with structural and nanoparticle derived electronic elements. As a proof of concept, we generated a bionic ear via 3D printing of a cell-seeded hydrogel matrix in the precise anatomic geometry of a human ear, along with an intertwined conducting polymer consisting of infused silver nanoparticles. This allowed for in vitro culturing of cartilage tissue around an inductive coil antenna in the ear, which subsequently enables readout of inductively-coupled signals from cochlea-shaped electrodes. The printed ear exhibits enhanced auditory sensing for radio frequency reception, and complementary left and right ears can listen to stereo audio music. Overall, our approach suggests a means to intricately merge biologic and nanoelectronic functionalities via 3D printing.
Subfields: Biomedical Engineering, Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience, Cognitive Neuroscience
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/cb1344928b0db104f1a84a703e7bdae4136b7406
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Citations in the corpus
- Multiprocess 3D printing for increasing component functionality (2016, background): “printed a functional microphone in the form and feel of a human ear with biocompatible hydrogels (45), and Van Tiem et al.”
- Additive manufacturing technologies: state of the art and trends (2016, background): “Several applications combine some degradable or allogeneic scaffolding with cellular bioprinting to create customised biologic prosthetics that have the great potential to serve as transplantable replacement tissue (Giovinco et al. 2012; Mannoor et al. 2013; Xu et al. 2013).”
- A review of 3D-printed sensors (2017, background): “(86) printed a bionic sensor that exhibits enhanced auditory sensing characteristics for RF reception.”
- 3D printing of functional biomaterials for tissue engineering. (2016, neutral): “(g) 3D printing of bionic ear with viable chondrocytes pre-seeded in alginate hydrogel, silicone, and Ag nanoparticles for enhanced auditory sensing [26].”
- Bone regenerative medicine: classic options, novel strategies, and future directions (2014, neutral): “[153] presented a novel strategy to overcome these difficulties via additive manufacturing of biological cells with structural and nanoparticle-derived electronic”