Printing your own organs and prosthetic body parts
In recent years, 3-D printer applications in the medical industry have emerged as radical use cases for the technology.
Publicly listed 3-D bio-printing company Organovo has made progress in this field; in the meanwhile, 3-D printed body parts have already become a reality. Earlier this year, robotics manufacturer Ekso Bionics partnered with 3D Systems, a pioneer in the 3-D printing industry, todesign an exoskeleton for Amanda Boxtel, a former competitive skier left using a wheelchair after a skiing accident.
Over the years, 3-D printers have pushed technological and biological boundaries. Oxford Performance Materials, a Connecticut-based materials firm, designed a new skull using polyetherketoneketone, a material that encourages bone growth. The skull was applied to a man who had lost 75% of his cranium, CNET reports.
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