3D Printed Nano-Bionic Organs

描述（由申请人提供）：功能性电子元件与生物组织和器官的多维集成方法的发展可能对再生医学，智能假肢和人机界面产生巨大影响。然而，目前的电子设备和系统本质上是二维和刚性的，因此禁止与三维软生物无缝啮合。将生物组织与功能电子学三维交织在一起的能力，可以创造出用于恢复损伤的仿生器官，或增强人体功能，超越其自然局限性。目前的电子设备本质上是二维的，这阻碍了与生物的无缝集成，因为用于创建合成组织结构的过程和材料与传统电子设备非常不同。在这里，我们提出了一种克服这些困难的新策略，即使用各种类型的功能电子纳米材料对生物细胞进行增材制造。最近，我们通过3D打印细胞种子水凝胶基质，在人耳的精确解剖几何结构中，以及由注入的银纳米粒子组成的缠绕导电聚合物，产生了一个功能仿生耳。这允许在体外培养软骨组织周围的耳朵电感线圈天线，

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The development of approaches for multidimensional integration of functional electronic components with biological tissue and organs could have tremendous impact in regenerative medicine, smart prosthetics, and human-machine interfaces. However, current electronic devices and systems are inherently two dimensional and rigid, thus prohibiting seamless meshing with three-dimensional, soft biology. The ability to three-dimensionally interweave biological tissue with functional electronics could enable the creation of bionic organs for restoring impairments, or enhancing human functionalities over their natural limitations. Current electronics are inherently two-dimensional, preventing seamless integration with biology, as the processes and materials used to create synthetic tissue constructs vs. conventional electronic devices are very different. Here, we present a novel strategy for overcoming these difficulties via additive manufacturing of biological cells with various classes of functional electronic nanomaterials. Recently, we have generated a functional bionic ear via 3D printing of a cell-seeded hydrogel matrix in the precise anatomic geometry of a human ear, along with an intertwined conducting polymer consisting of infused silver nanoparticles. This allowed for the in vitro culturing of cartilage tissue around an inductive coil antenna in the ear, which subsequently connects to cochlea-shaped electrodes. The printed ear exhibits enhanced auditory sensing for radio frequency reception, and complementary left and right ears can listen to stereo music. Here, we propose extending this approach to new functionalities - such as ultrasonic acoustic reception and vasculature - and bionic organs, including bionic eyes and a bionic nose. Overall, our approach presents a disruptive and paradigm-shifting new method to intricately merge biology and electronics via 3D printing. The work outlined here thus constitutes a novel, highly interdisciplinary investigation to addressing outstanding questions in the generation of bionic organs, and we anticipate that this work will represent a paradigm-shift in both tissue engineering, as well as 3D interweaving of functional electronics into biological systems.