The Christchurch Regenerative Medicine and Tissue Engineering Group (CReaTE), a multidisciplinary research team at New Zealand’s University of Otago, is using 3D printing to develop new bioprinting techniques and biomaterials in order to repair damaged tissues following trauma or disease.
3D bioprinting is seen by many as one of the most important emerging technologies in the ongoing battle against tissue damage, whether brought about by trauma or disease. Bioprinting and biomaterials research is taking place all over the world, but a group of medical researchers at the University of Otago, based in Christchurch, South Island, is making determined strides in the field as it commandeers some of New Zealand's most advanced bioprinting equipment. Using their collective expertise, researchers from a number of fields are working to create human tissue and bone using patients’ own cartilage and stem cells combined with special bio-inks.
CReaTE, the regenerative medicine research group in question, is led by Associate Professor Tim Woodfield, and is working at the interface of cell-biology, biomaterials science, and engineering as it attempts identify the complex cellular environments controlling tissue growth in 3D. The group believes that it will someday be able to complete achieve the much-anticipated feat of creating functioning human body parts. The key to the group's progress, according to Woodfield and co, is a new kind of bio-ink, a supporting gel-like substance used to arrange and nurture human cells as they form.