A team at Northwestern University have developed a new organic printing material that could revolutionise regenerative medicine. The key to this remarkable discovery lies in the ability to control the way in which molecules combine to form tissues and cells. The printing process involves taking sample cells from a patient, and then creating living, functional tissues in the lab for research or reinsertion back into the patient.
The idea came from a study conducted in 2018 by lead scientist and pioneer in supramolecular self-assembly, Samuel I Stupp. He showed that biomaterials could be programmed to travel to a specific site in the body and then reassemble to form super-structured bundles of nanofibres.
From this initial result, his team have extended their studies to investigate how these super-structures can be used to target neuron growth, with a view to finding methods of reversing neurodegenerative diseases via cell transplantation.
The biomaterial involves mixing two reactive liquids that can lock and unlock from each other at the molecular level. This enables the key components to effectively move over one another like a tank track until they reach the desired destination. At this point, the molecules reorganise into useful protein bundles.