What You Should Know; 

– Boston Micro Fabrication (BMF) today announced the launch of BMF Biotechnology Inc., a dedicated subsidiary focused on developing and commercializing innovative BioChips – advanced microfluidic platforms that mimic human organs. 

– By leveraging BioChip technology, BMF Biotechnology aims to accelerate breakthroughs in drug development, improve cosmetic safety and efficacy testing, and ultimately, contribute to the development of more effective treatments for patients.

BMF: A Legacy of Precision Microfabrication

BMF has established itself as a leader in high-precision micro-printing solutions for various industries, including medical devices, electronics, and life sciences. Their expertise in creating features with exceptional resolution and dimensional tolerance is a cornerstone of their success.

Expanding Beyond Printing: The Rise of BMF Biotechnology

In late 2022, BMF embarked on a strategic expansion. This initiative included the establishment of the San Diego Research Institute, dedicated to pioneering microfluidic BioChip technology for drug discovery and cosmetic testing. The initial phase of research has yielded highly promising results.

BioChips: A Powerful Platform for Advanced Research

BMF Biotechnology’s BioChips offer a revolutionary approach to studying human health and disease. By meticulously replicating the body’s physiological conditions, these platforms enable researchers to:

• Investigate biological mechanisms of health and disease
• Evaluate the safety and efficacy of drugs and cosmetics
• Predict patient responses to treatment

A key advantage of BioChips is their integrated “vascular-mimetic” network. This intricate system mimics the human body’s blood vessels, allowing for the delivery of nutrients, removal of waste products, and distribution of compounds throughout the entire tissue sample. This innovation has the potential to yield:

• More precise testing results
• Enhanced prediction of compound sensitivity compared to traditional 2D cell cultures and animal models

BMF Biotechnology Partner Program: Fostering Collaboration and Innovation

To fully unlock the potential of BioChips, BMF Biotechnology is actively recruiting collaboration partners. The BMF Biotechnology Partner Program provides a framework for joint development and validation of innovative devices and biological models. Industry, research institutions, and academia are all encouraged to reach out and explore potential partnerships.

“Building on success that BMF has had with other self-driven innovations such as the UltraThineer veneers, the launch of BMF Biotechnology Inc. represents a significant leap forward in our ability to harness the potential of 3D BioChip technology,” remarked Dr. Jennifer Sun, Chief Scientific Officer of BMF Biotechnology Inc. “With our innovative technology and approach, we aim to empower researchers with the tools they need to translate scientific discoveries into tangible therapeutic solutions that improve patient outcomes.”

What You Should Know:

– Missouri University of Science and Technology researchers are developing new 3D-printed hydrogel dressings to speed up and improve the healing process for patients with second-degree burns. The research team published an article covering their latest findings in the International Journal of Bioprinting in July.

– Hydrogels are typically part of the care regimen for patients with severe burns, but what separates S&T’s research from standard hydrogels is that the team is focusing on precisely 3D printing dressings that also include bioactive borate glass.

3D-printed Hydrogel Dressings

By 3D printing the dressings and including the glass, the researchers can better control the release of water from the dressing. Instead of coming in bursts, the water is paced out continuously over the course of 10 days, which means the dressing should stay effective on the wound for a longer time. In a study using a murine model, researchers observed that the 3D-printed dressings led to faster wound closures, less scarring, non-adhesive contact of the dressing and easier dressing removal.

“We have developed dressings with bioactive formulations to better address issues that patients with burn injuries regularly face,” says Dr. Fateme Fayyazbakhsh, an assistant research professor of mechanical engineering at S&T and the project’s lead researcher. “The continuous hydration provided by these dressings, along with their non-adhesive and porous texture, show great promise in promoting moist wound healing, reducing pain caused by atraumatic dressing removal, and minimizing scar tissue formation.”

Fayyazbakhsh says the next steps for this research are to continue refining and improving the dressing, while also demonstrating its viability as a treatment option and considering its long-term efficacy. She says the eventual goal is to hold clinical trials with patients and then commercialize the treatment.

“We are making great strides toward one day having the dressings commercialized and providing better treatment for burn patients,” Fayyazbakhsh says.

What You Should Know:

– Stratasys Ltd. today announced they have signed another agreement with RICOH USA to provide on-demand 3D-printed anatomic models for clinical settings.

– The demand for additive manufacturing within the healthcare industry is continuously growing, and according to Grandview Research, the global healthcare additive manufacturing market size was valued at USD 1.6 billion in 2021 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 22.6% from 2022 to 2030. Stratasys and RICOH are making strides towards meeting this demand with today’s exciting announcement. 

3D-Printed Anatomic Models

Anatomic 3D-printed models are realistic, specific visualizations of a patient’s anatomy, allowing practitioners to plan and practice complex surgeries and improve communication between medical staff, the patient, and their families. Digital Anatomy™ technology from Stratasys even enables these models to be biomechanically realistic, with the feel and responsiveness of real bone and tissue.

While this method of surgical planning offers benefits to patients and care teams, the need for up-front capital investments and on-site 3D printing technical expertise are significant barriers to its adoption. This new service removes those barriers to expand access to more hospitals and clinics, and ultimately contribute to better outcomes.

The new offering gives clinicians and patients increased access to patient-specific 3D-printed models for pre-operative surgical planning, diagnostic use, and surgical education. Using these models, clinicians can demonstrate treatment decisions to patients and surgical staff. Surgical planning with patient-specific 3D models can improve clinical outcomes and drive significant savings through improved productivity.

With the new collaboration, customers can upload medical files to a secure cloud-based service where Axial3D’s artificial intelligence-powered software automatically converts medical scans into 3D printable files. The files are then printed on Stratasys 3D printers at Ricoh’s ISO 13485 certified facility, with the models shipped directly to the care facility. These changes allow a process that normally takes weeks to be completed in days, without the need for onsite 3D printing equipment or additive manufacturing technical expertise.

“With the advancement in imaging techniques and 3D-printing technology, we are seeing an increased demand for personalized solutions,” said Ben Klein, general manager of Patient-Specific Solutions for Stratasys. “We offer a simplified and scalable, comprehensive solution that increases access to patient-specific 3D-printed models in a fraction of time to help deliver highly personalized treatment and care.”

Availability

The service will be available starting March 3, 2023.

For the 77% of Americans who suffer from foot pain,¹ seeking relief has included a litany of options: medications, exercises, insoles and even surgery to name a few. But relief is often hit-or-miss, and insoles that are customized traditionally include a very time-consuming process for patients. They often require lengthy office visits, multiple fit adjustments and even then, not always offering the right fit. 

Fortunately, advancements in technology are changing the game. Software, hardware and innovations in materials have made repeatable, personalized orthotics both possible and exceedingly practical for patients and providers alike. Cloud-computing solutions combined with 3D printing capabilities have shortened the production process and provided a new level of customization. 

The transformation yields impressive results. Now more than ever, podiatrists have the tools they need to provide convenient, personalized care. And patients benefit from improved foot health, reduced pain and better quality of life. 

A pandemic of foot pain 

Many Americans endure foot pain, and the COVID-19 pandemic seems to have exacerbated the issue. According to the Journal of Foot and Ankle Research,² lockdowns and social distancing requirements made it harder for podiatry patients to access providers and care. For many, physical activity deteriorated, and foot health did as well. 

But as podiatry clinics and providers resume in-person patient care, recent innovations offer the opportunity to not only make up for lost time but also drastically improve foot pain treatment and outcomes. With cloud computing software, providers can capture 3D renderings of patients’ feet and create personalized orthotics that meet patients’ exact needs. 

Advanced software automatically detects anatomical landmarks, enabling providers to adjust the form, fit and function of each patient’s orthotics seamlessly and quickly. Meanwhile, mature 3D printing solutions allow providers to add even more customization. For example, providers can design orthotics with varying degrees of stiffness in specific areas. In the past, the only way to adjust the stiffness of the product was to change its thickness or add more material to the arch. 

In much the same way that 3D printed aligners have empowered users with more customizations for improving their teeth managed through apps and personalized visual models, emerging orthotics technology has also made it so that countless customizations and visualizations for footcare are easily accessible from a simple interface that practitioners and patients can explore together.

Today’s technology means that providers can create orthotics with flexibility and support in infinite combinations. For instance, a patient may need an orthotic with a stiff arch but still want a lightweight, thin solution that fits into dress shoes. 

An end-to-end process 

The increased precision in orthotics design is a huge benefit, but the innovation goes beyond the end product. The combination of cloud-based software and 3D printing is transforming how the industry treats foot pain from the start. What was once a cumbersome experience is now an efficient, repeatable process that helps podiatrists deliver a higher-quality, precision orthotic product.  

Using the 3D scans to identify foot issues, providers can address patient problems in the office and create orthotic designs that specifically solve them. The experience is personalized to each patient and, importantly, replicable. When patients need or want a new orthotic, providers can simply reorder from the same 3D scan or take a new one if the patients’ foot health or anatomy has changed. 

It’s a far cry from the traditional practice of using messy plaster or foam molds to model patients’ feet, manually adding material to alter the design, and remaking the molds when patients need new orthotics. Instead, the cloud-based solution allows providers to create endless iterations of a patient’s orthotics—fine-tuning the design within minutes instead of weeks. 

The efficiencies gained from a digitalized, end-to-end process save clinics and providers time and undoubtedly money. What’s more, advanced 3D printers also reduce waste in the production cycle, optimizing the use of materials at every turn and creating a more sustainable process overall. 

A new era of foot health 

Podiatry has yet to realize the true promise of 3D printing. Until recently, the cost of owning a 3D printer prevented many clinics and hospitals from accessing the technology. However, the ability to send orthotic designs to a centralized printer (versus purchasing one for each clinic) has made the technology more accessible. The positive impact of this capability in the broader health sector was never more apparent than during COVID-19. Digital design files for urgently needed PPE were shared between companies and across borders where 3D print hubs—ranging from universities to multinational cosmetic brands—were able to pivot and print life-saving equipment for individual hospitals and practices. For orthotic clinics, this ability to offer the benefits of 3D printed insoles without the burden of printer ownership and maintenance all but guarantees that patient care and broader industry knowledge can be extended to even more people. 

The combination of affordability and advancements in orthotic design and production bode well for the millions of Americans whose foot pain burdens their everyday life. Transforming the process from start to finish gives more patients access to personalized solutions and grants more people the opportunity to eliminate foot pain from their life for good.

About Philipp Jung

Philipp Jung is the General Manager of Arize and Global Head of Orthotic Solutions at HP. Arize is a digital end-to-end orthotics solution focused on driving personalized care for people in need of relief from foot pain.

3D Printing: Balancing Demand and Supply Between COVID-19 Challenges

As usual, the first question that arises is: How additive manufacturing is helping meet demand and supply balance? So, here is what you must know. The demand to manufacture parts and functional prototypes was fulfilled particularly by three entities.

1. Hospitals produced protective equipment by purchasing and utilizing 3d printers.

2. Universities lent their additive manufacturing capabilities to frontline health workers.

3. 3D printing equipment providers were continuously providing services with all they could in such difficult times.

Of course, this is still a shorter view of COVID-19 and 3D printing relation because the pandemic is yet to stay and how does 3D printing performs in competition with other manufacturing techniques is a topic that is vastly debatable. On 19^th August 2020, a trio of panelists came on board to discuss this topic. 

Chris Connery, VP Global Analysis and Research at technology market research company CONTEXT, Nadav Goshen, CEO at MakerBot, and Stefanie Brickwede, Founder and Managing Director of Mobility Goes Additive and Head of Additive Manufacturing at Deutsche Bahn hinted at how Covid-19 has actually been an active phenomenon for adapting and perceiving 3D printing as a viable alternative among the many manufacturing techniques that we have in place.

Opinion of the trio on proportionality of 3D printing and COVID-19

The belief that additive light goes on and there is no stopping potential is what someone like Goshen has been vouching for. Goshen, who has experienced first-hand knocking on doors from eager engineers that seek MakerBot’s help in assisting through the challenges says, “We say there is an innovator in everyone, and this is our vision for MakerBot and we saw that many people, engineers, came and wanted to help. It’s upon us to make sure that they have the tools to do so and I think we’re providing them with that. Once it starts it will not end because what an engineer need is a tool, once they have the tool, there will come innovation and I think this is what has kind of started to roll.”

Moving on, we have Brickwede who is a representative for a diverse network for industrial additive manufacturing companies at Mobility/Medical, points out how she feels. She exclaims, ”This is a continuous growth rate because there are so many companies which are really fighting for their existence so they have to do anything, they have to change something and additive manufacturing is a great technology to speed up those development processes. This is why I’m absolutely convinced this will keep on growing, especially as there are even more business cases now coming up, like tools you can do for molds for instance. This is what the railways now do, you can print out jigs and fixtures; it just takes you half an hour to design those, another hour to print out, and then you can use it immediately in the maintenance workshops.”

It is important to note the closure of Voodoo manufacturing as an example of how temporarily companies are switching their 3D capabilities over to PPE solutions because otherwise, it wouldn’t be a wise decision for them to survive. 

Connery notes that Context believes in the growth of the additive manufacturing industry to a 20 billion dollar in the USA in the coming two years. About his expectations he says,” We expect the demand to continue on but with the caveat (..…) difficult economies and a lot of the key industries that 3D printing currently caters to still have some difficulty ahead. Once we get past all that we do believe that this install base of professional machines, this next generation of engineers who are sequestered at home are going to be the management and CEOs of the next generation and they would have become familiar with additive manufacturing.”

Other companies’ participation

CEO of Formlabs, a company that is one of the leaders in developing advanced 3D printers, told a new magazine how Formlabs anticipate 3D printing to be at a greater rate that anyone actually did, before Covid-19. Joining the trio, Formlabs’ CEO was Proto Labs’ CEO by sharing how she believes the role of the crisis has been a shining light on how this manufacturing technique is a very vital tool in solving problems.

While other companies are busy supporting and admiring the utility 3D printing technology in addressing the problem of supply and demand in the current market, be it through 3D printed swabs and face shields which the technology has produced in millions, there are many other companies and communities that are spreading awareness about the perks of additive manufacturing. For instance, Pick 3D Printer provides tricks to the visitors for creating some hacks that will help them for staying safe in the times of this Covide-19 pandemic. You may find many other such websites too. In short, people are understanding how 3D printing is capable of substituting for the old technologies, if not replacing those completely.

Conclusion

Although additive manufacturing is the option people switch to when they need agility, there is a lot to be done in transferring the already fed minds with this nuance. Currently, companies are enjoying a list full of orders in the area that they always wished to serve their customers. With working from home becoming a basic necessity of all the businesses until the lockdown measures have been completely lifted and the businesses start to perform as they did, 3D printing is a suitable option to have at people’s homes. 

Some statistics will be a fantastic note to end upon. Growth in the professional 3D printing market was noted to be growing by 17% from 2018 to 2019 while every other category of printer that took a dip in hardware sales, indicates that work from home scenarios has had a positive impact on purchases of compact professional systems for remote usage. If that is true and these kinds of distributed working settings are to continue, many companies predict how more of an emphasis will be on developments in software and connectivity for ensuring seamless cross-collaboration and secure sharing of data while using 3D printing technology. 

axial3D, a U.K.-based, medical 3D printing company specializing in the use of patient-specific medical models to advance both standards and efficiency of surgical intervention has raised $3M in funding led by London-based Imprimatur Capital Fund Management. The round also included participation from an U.S. consortium consisting of a number of surgical angel investors, Techstart Ventures, Clarendon Fund Managers and Innovation Ulster Ltd.

What is 3D Printing?

3D printing (also referred to as additive manufacturing) is the method of creating physical objects from a digital file by adding multiple layers of a material, or multiple materials to build a single structure. The structure is based on the input of a computer-aided design file, in a format compatible with the 3D printing hardware.

The global 3D printing medical devices market is projected to see a compounding annual growth rate of 23%, largely due to the increasing adoption of 3D printing technology within the medical sector. 3D printing drives production of these custom-made products and devices. Examples of actual and potential uses of 3D printing in medicine include:

·       Customized prosthetics and implants

·       Anatomical models for surgical planning and education

·       Pharmaceutical research including drug dosage forms and discovery

·       Tissue and organ fabrication

·       Personalized medical products and equipment

High Quality 3D Printed Anatomical Models

Founded in 2015, axial3D removes barriers to make it easy for you to access 3D printed models. Axial3D can create and ship a 3D printed model generated from patient CT, MRI and PET data within 48 hours, allowing clinicians to concentrate on what matters most, your patients. These anatomical models are often used in patient communication and consultation to show and explain to patients about their medical conditions and what their surgical procedures will involve. 3D anatomical models also have use in surgical education, providing medical students and junior doctors the opportunity to exactly see tumors, fractures, lesions and other abnormalities

The benefits of Using 3D Printed Anatomical Models in Healthcare

– Enhanced insights into pathology: By holding the replica in your hand and having a true 360° view, you get a full view of the true anatomy in context.

– Reduce theatre time: axial3D customers report saving 30-60 minutes of surgery time, with some cases showing 5+ hours saved.

– Patient communication: patient understanding and satisfaction are increased by seeing and holding models of their anatomy, aiding in consent discussions.

– Preoperative trailing & simulation: 3D printed patient-specific models support physical simulations of surgery. This saves time and increases the confidence of surgical teams.

Expansion to the U.S. Market

The investment will support axial3D’s rapid growth plans for the USA. The company plans to open an office in the region, following recent customer wins and as other healthcare institutions sign up to the service. In addition, the firm is creating roles within the expanding U.S. market and at its base in Belfast to support the large growth and ensure continuous innovation.

“By having a 3D print of the patient’s anatomy in my hand, I get an extra level of understanding that just isn’t possible with 2D or 3D images on screen. I can plan the surgery in detail, considering the best approach, as well as the potential problems, before stepping into the operating theatre,” said Dr. Tim Brown Consultant Transplant Surgeon, Belfast City Hospital.

Why It Matters

“The closure of this investment round marks an important milestone for our company. It will accelerate our growth within our expanding markets and enable us to bring our 3D printing solution to more healthcare organizations, helping them to drive down costs, improve compliance and, ultimately, enhance patient care. Continuous innovation is crucial to bring the best solutions to market and keep up with customer demand. Following our recent collaborations with Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare and University Hospital Basel, we will focus further on the North American and European markets. This includes opening an office in the USA and recruiting more talent into our team, particularly to grow our machine learning capability. This will enable us to continue to innovate and find new ways to bring 3D printing on-demand to the entire healthcare sector,” said Daniel Crawford, CEO at axial3D.