Category Archives: ARTIFICIAL ORGANS

Get your Teeth Printed by Rapid Prototyping

3D printers

Image by Tom T via Flickr

Researchers in Iran explain how medical imaging coupled with computer-aided design could be used to create a perfect-fit blueprint for prosthetic dentistry, whether to replace diseased or broken teeth and jaw bone. The blueprint can then be fed into a so-called 3D printer to build up an exact replica using a biocompatible composite material. Such technology has been used in medical prosthetics before, but this is an early step into prosthetic dentistry using rapid prototyping.

This is a preview of Get your Teeth Printed by Rapid Prototyping. Read the full post (185 words, 1 image, estimated 44 secs reading time)

ARTIFICIAL RETINA-RESTORING SIGHT THROUGH SCIENCE

The DOE Artificial Retina Project is a multi-institutional collaborative effort to develop and implant a device containing an array of microelectrodes into the eyes of people blinded by retinal disease. The ultimate goal is to design a device with hundreds to more than a thousand microelectrodes. This resolution will help restore limited vision that enables reading, unaided mobility, and facial recognition.

The device is intended to bypass the damaged eye structure of those with retinitis pigmentosa and macular degeneration. These diseases destroy the light-sensing cells (photoreceptors, or rods and cones) in the retina, a multilayered membrane located at the back of the eye.

This is a preview of ARTIFICIAL RETINA-RESTORING SIGHT THROUGH SCIENCE. Read the full post (137 words, 1 image, estimated 33 secs reading time)