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Repurposing a Mosquito’s Proboscis as a Slim Nozzle for 3D Printing

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Mosquito proboscis repurposed as a nozzle for 3D printing

Changhong Cao et al. 2025

Separated mosquito proboscises can be transformed into ultra-thin nozzles for 3D printing, offering potential for generating replacement tissues and organs suitable for transplantation.

Cao Changhong and his team at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, pioneered this method, termed 3D necroprinting, because they couldn’t find a nozzle adequately thin for creating extremely fine structures. The narrowest commercial nozzle available was 35 micrometers in inner diameter, with a price tag of 60 pounds (approximately $80).

They explored methods like glass drawing, but those nozzles were also costly and very brittle.

“This led us to consider alternatives,” says Cao. “If nature can give us what we need affordably, why should we create it ourselves?”

The research team tasked graduate students, including Justin Puma, to inspect everything from scorpion stingers to snake fangs to identify natural organs fit for the purpose. Ultimately, they discovered the mosquito proboscis, particularly the tougher variant found in female Egyptian mosquitoes (Aedes aegypti). They can now print structures as thin as 20 micrometers.

Cao remarked that a skilled operator could produce six nozzles per hour from the mosquito mouthparts, each costing under $1, making scalability straightforward. These natural nozzles can be fitted onto current 3D printers and are surprisingly durable given their organic origin. Approximately 30% may fail after two weeks, but they can be preserved in the freezer for up to a year.

The research team tested their technology using a bioink called Pluronic F-127, enabling the crafting of biological tissue scaffolds, including blood vessels, and providing a possible route for developing substitute organs.

There are numerous other instances where small biological components have been utilized in machines, such as moth antennas employed in scent-detecting drones. Deceased spiders have been harnessed as mechanical grippers.

Christian Griffith, along with collaborators from Swansea University in the UK, noted that this study exemplifies how human engineers often struggle to keep pace with the tools developed by nature.

“Mosquitoes boast millions of years of evolution, and we’re striving to catch up,” he explains. “They possess a distinct advantage in this respect.”

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Source: www.newscientist.com

3D Printing Pioneers Safer, Long-Term Treatments for Type 1 Diabetes

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Individuals with type 1 diabetes struggle to produce sufficient insulin for blood sugar regulation

Half Point Image/Getty Image

Researchers have developed a 3D-printed device comprising insulin-producing cells, offering potential for long-term management of type 1 diabetes by enabling patients to generate their own insulin without invasive surgery.

Type 1 diabetes patients typically lack the ability to produce enough insulin to manage their blood sugar levels, necessitating regular insulin injections and dietary precautions. A common long-term approach involves transplanting clusters of insulin-producing cells from a donor’s pancreas. However, similar to organ transplants, this method requires invasive surgical procedures.

Quentin Perrier from Wake Forest Research Institute in North Carolina explains, “Currently, the procedure involves injecting human islets into the liver through the portal vein.” Unfortunately, around half of these implanted islets lose their function quickly, necessitating multiple transplants for effective treatment.

By placing islets directly beneath the skin, not only does it minimize surgical invasiveness, but it also alleviates stress and inflammation, factors that can shorten the lifespan of the cells.

Adam Feinberg from Carnegie Mellon University and Fluidform Bio states, “The greater the density, the better the outcome. This approach will reduce the size of the devices required for implantation in patients.”

To achieve this increased density, Perrier and his team utilize 3D printing to create islands from “bioinks” composed of human pancreatic tissue and alginates, a type of carbohydrate derived from seaweed. Living insulin-producing cells are incorporated into this material.

“We combine this bioink with human islets in a syringe and print specialized motifs,” Perrier elaborates. This porous design allows for the development of new blood vessels around the structure.

In laboratory settings, this technique has proven effective, with about 90% of the cells in the islet surviving and functioning for up to three weeks. “The next step is to rigorously test this finding in vivo,” Perrier added. Their research was shared at the 2025 European Organ Transplant Association (ESOT) conference in London on June 29th.

Feinberg and his team have also undertaken the 3D printing of islets themselves. Their technique involves creating a framework akin to “3D printing within a hair gel” by printing cells and collagen directly onto a hydrogel polymer. This was showcased at the International Pancreatic and Islet Transplant Association conference in Pisa, Italy, on June 16th. In diabetic laboratory mice, these islets managed to restore normal glucose control for up to six months.

While Perrier’s findings are “undoubtedly promising,” Feinberg cautions that the inherent variability of human tissues employed in creating the islands can present challenges. “It’s akin to receiving a transplanted organ,” he notes. “The material may function exceptionally well, yet its variability poses challenges and complicates the situation.”

Both Feinberg and Perrier concur that stem cell therapy may hold the key to the future of managing type 1 diabetes. By integrating stem cells into their 3D printing process, they believe this approach could address multiple challenges associated with current cell sources.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

3D Printing Enables Complex Vascular Networks for Prosthetic Applications

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Vascular networks crafted by computational models

Andrew Brodhead

Computational models enabling the swift design of vascular networks for 3D-printed organs could advance the prospect of artificial liver, kidney, or heart transplants, eliminating the dependency on donors.

Individuals suffering from organ failure often require transplants. Merely 10% of the global transplant demand is currently met. In response, researchers are innovating techniques to produce lab-grown organs via 3D printing. However, these efforts hinge on experimental methodologies for sustaining the vascular networks long enough to remain viable for days or weeks.

To tackle this issue, Allison Marsden from Stanford University and her team have developed a computational model that facilitates the design of these networks for any organ using mathematical principles explaining how blood vessels branch within the body.

They evaluated their method by creating a network of 25 vessels with 1 cm wide ring-shaped structures that were 3D printed from kidney cells according to their design.

The team then fabricated the vascular network into rings using cold gelatin particles, subsequently heated to 37°C (98.6°F) to dissolve the gelatin, resulting in a network of hollow channels measuring 1 mm in width that mirrored blood vessels. The researchers continued to circulate oxygen and nutrient solutions through the channels to replicate normal blood flow.

After one week, the ring contained approximately 400 times more viable cells compared to a similar ring made from bloodless kidney cells that had been exposed to blood-like fluids.

“We succeeded in keeping the cells near the network alive,” remarks Marsden. “However, the more distant cells perished because we were unable to print the smaller, more intricately branched networks necessary to deliver nutrients to those regions. Our team is actively seeking solutions to this challenge.”

“They are definitely pushing the limits of feasibility,” states Hugues Talbot from University Paris-Clay, France. This novel approach might someday enable scientists to design vascular networks for full-sized organs in mere hours, rather than days or weeks. “Networks designed in this manner could potentially substitute or at least complement lab-grown organs in the future.”

First, researchers must devise methods for 3D printing these vascular networks onto larger organs. If progress continues on this path, Marsden expresses a desire to experiment with 3D-printed organs in pigs within the next five years.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

NASA’s Rotating Explosive Rocket Engine Takes Flight with 3D Printing Technology

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by Ramon J. Osorio, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center December 26, 2023

Engineers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, successfully completed a 251-second high-temperature combustion test of a full-scale rotary explosion rocket engine combustor in fall 2023, achieving more than 5,800 pounds of thrust. Credit: NASA

NASAMarshall Space Flight Center tested a 3D-printed Rotating Explosive Rocket Engine (RDRE) for more than four minutes and was able to generate significant thrust. This test is essential for deep space missions and represents a step forward in NASA’s development of an efficient propulsion system for the Moon. Mars vision.

NASA has achieved a new benchmark in the development of an innovative propulsion system called the Rotating Explosive Rocket Engine (RDRE). Engineers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, tested his new 3D-printed RDRE for 251 seconds (or over four minutes) and were able to generate more than 5,800 pounds of thrust.

This type of sustained burn emulates the typical requirements for a lander touchdown or deep space burn that could set a spacecraft on a course from the Moon to Mars, the center said. said Thomas Teasley, lead Marshall combustion equipment engineer.

RDRE’s first high-temperature fire test was conducted in Marshall in the summer of 2022 in partnership with In Space LLC and Purdue University (Lafayette, Indiana). The test generated more than 4,000 pounds of thrust for nearly a minute. The main objective of the latest tests was to extend the combustor to different thrust classes, support all types of engine systems, and maximize the diversity of missions it can deliver, from landers to upper stages to supersonics. Teasley said the key is to better understand how to increase the Reverse propulsion is a deceleration technique that has the potential to land larger payloads, and even humans, on the surface of Mars.

Test stand video taken at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, shows the ignition of a full-size rotary-explosion rocket engine combustor that ignited for a record 251 seconds and achieved more than 5,800 pounds of thrust. It is shown.

“RDRE significantly increases design efficiency,” he said. “This shows we are getting closer to developing lightweight propulsion systems that will allow us to send more mass and payloads into deep space, a critical component for NASA. From the moon to Mars vision. “

Engineers at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland; Venus Aerospace, Houston, Texas, is working with NASA Marshall to identify ways to scale the technology for higher performance.

RDRE is managed and funded by the Game Changing Development Program within NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate.

Source: scitechdaily.com