A hospital in Brisbane, Australia will play host to dedicated biofabrication institute where cartilage, bone and tissue can be 3D printed for their patients.

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The Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Brisbane, Australia is opening a new “biofabrication institute” where doctors and researchers can pioneer the technology for future applications.

According to Australian Minister of Health Cameron Dick, the world-class facility will be located right inside the city’s hospital. He said:

“It will be the first time a biomanufacturing institute will be co-located with a high-level hospital. Our vision for healthcare is that the biofabrication institute will pave the way for 3D printers to sit in operating theaters, ready to print tissue as needed, in our hospitals of the future.”

Doctors and researchers will be able to experiment, model and print cartilage, bone and tissues at the facility. And life-enhancing benefits for their patients — like the Australian toddler with the world’s first 3D printed ear – will become more commonplace.

Dick continued: “This institute, opening in 2017, will catapult Queensland onto the global stage as a leader in medical innovation and technology that will change the face of healthcare

Here’s an official report from 7 News Brisbane:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lu-7V7nvmXE

Biofabrication Institute For the Hospital of Tomorrow

This is a partnership between QUT and Metro North Hospital and Health Service. It will dedicate two floors of the Herston Health Precinct to 3D printing technology.

QUT Biofabrication and Tissue Morphology Group Associate Professor, Mia Woodruff outlines the potential of biofabrication.

“A lot of the implants we are developing, we can implant into a patient,” she says. “And as the tissue grows back, it is not rejected, the scaffold will reabsorb over time and the tissue will grow even more and eventually the implant is gone.”

It may be a while off yet, the institute’s biggest aim is to 3D print an organ and reduce waiting times for patients in need of a replacement. Woodruff explains:

“We are not going to be able to 3D print an organ tomorrow but what we are able to do is bring together the researchers, the clinicians, the patients, the engineers, the intellect and industry partners to be able for us to develop new technology to the level where it can be translated into the clinic.”

To learn more about the aims of the Herston Biofabrication Institute, visit the QUT website here.

Source: Brisbane Times