Multimedia Gallery

Ink-well.

I'm Bob Karson with the Discovery Files, from the National Science Foundation.

Many of us have had broken bones healed with a simple cast. But some more serious breaks require bone grafts -- where 'non-essential' bone tissue is taken from somewhere like your pelvis, (Sound effect: slight Elvis: thankyouverymuch) and grafted into the damaged area. A 'bone-efied' solution until you realize regular bone grafting means multiple operations, months of pain, ow, and there's only so much extra non-essential bone to go around.

A team at Texas A&M has come up with a 3-D bioprinting 'ink' that could one day mean less invasive, faster healing bone and tissue repair, customized to the patient. A potential alternative for the half million or so Americans a year who may need bone grafts. The team's ink formulation is called, 'NICE' -- nano-engineered ionic-covalent entanglement. Nice. Highly printable. Mechanically strong.

Nice bio-inks carry cells from the patient. Once bioprinted, those cells begin to deposit new proteins in a structure like a scaffold, that over a three-month period calcifies into bone. The method may provide new treatments for arthritis, bone fractures, dental work and craniofacial defects.

The lab has also produced full-scale, cell-friendly reconstructions of ears, blood vessels, cartilage even bone segments.

(Sound effect: office printer sound) Makin' copies.

"The discovery files" covers projects funded by the government's National Science Foundation. Federally sponsored research -- brought to you, by you! Learn more at nsf.gov or on our podcast.

Images and other media in the National Science Foundation Multimedia Gallery are available for use in print and electronic material by NSF employees, members of the media, university staff, teachers and the general public. All media in the gallery are intended for personal, educational and nonprofit/non-commercial use only.

Images credited to the National Science Foundation, a federal agency, are in the public domain. The images were created by employees of the United States Government as part of their official duties or prepared by contractors as "works for hire" for NSF. You may freely use NSF-credited images and, at your discretion, credit NSF with a "Courtesy: National Science Foundation" notation.

Additional information about general usage can be found in Conditions.