Could the reprap make something like a mold in shape of a body part? for example a ear, nose or even something like a bladder... molds like this are used in tissue engineering. For example the ear mouse which used an ear mold and cartilage producing cells (from a cow) to grow an ear on the back of a mouse.

I have even read about people using inkjet printers to print out solutions containing stem cells in certain patterns. Such an idea could potentially by used with the reprap.

If we can get a convergence of the tissue engineering crowd and the reprap crowd one day an nth generation reprap that can work with proteins may even be able to print an extra cellular matrix.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/30/2008 05:36AM by caston.

Reprap already prints PCL and PCL is used to make tissue scaffolding, so yes.

[www3.interscience.wiley.com]

sorry gene, why do you post links I must pay for?

Is it a new genre of "gimme money" or is it just an issue of you're paying for something that I don't?

'sid

Here's some stuff:

[www4.ncsu.edu]
[www.indente.de]
[www.sciencedirect.com]
[www.mem.drexel.edu]

Wait a minute, you have to pay to read the article? I can read it just fine and I don't have a subscription.
Here's the link: [www3.interscience.wiley.com]

I am by no means trying to sell subscriptions to whatever website that is, this was simply the first link I found involving PCL cell-scaffolding made via FDM(3d-plotting as they call it).

Surprisingly their printing system has about the same trace-width of reprap(~0.5-0.7 mm).

Oh yeah, here is the machine they used: [www.envisiontec.de]

It has multiple toolheads and an automatic toolhead changer. Maybe we should consider copying it...

yes wiley articles wont work without subscription at least not for me.
all I see is:


that is if i click one of the wiley links,
if I search on wiley and click their "abstract" link I can see the artivles.

strange... very strange... am i the only one with that behaviour?

'sid

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/03/2008 07:52AM by sid.

Hi sid,

... you're not alone - it's the same for me ...

Viktor

Gene Hacker, are you viewing the site from a university connection?
It could be that the university has made some arrangement with Wiley.

either I didn't notice or it wasn't there before...

in the yellow box on the right, there is a small link (Abstract)
clicking on that will show the article directly.

maybe it's something about referers or missing cookies or something.

'sid

I think the vast majority of universities have online subscriptions to common journals usually via institutional access or something similar. Depending on how these are set up, they may work automatically from university computers (they'd detect your IP) or may require you to log in. I think most detect your IP nowadays.