We thought we’d seen everything come out the other end of a 3D printer — guns, human fetuses, human organs, (non-human) meat — but the latest innovation is so small, it’s invisible. That’s right. Scientists are now 3D-printing things on a molecular level, giving them unprecedented control over the specific materials in compounds and potentially opening up a whole new realm of chemical and biological research. Obviously, there are lasers involved.A team of researchers at the Vienna University of Technology are calling the new technique “3D photografting,” and in principle, it works just like regular 3D printing only on a much, much smaller scale. The other key difference is the use of a tiny three-dimensional scaffolding onto which the scientists position the molecules. (This allows them to be ultra precise.) The grafting process happens in a hydrogel that has a loose and easily adjustable molecular make up. Scientists simply introduce the materials they want to build with into the hydrogel and then use a laser to guide them into place. “Much like an artist, placing colors at certain points of the canvas, we can place molecules in the hydrogel — but in three dimensions and with high precision,” says Aleksandr Ovsianikov, one of the authors on the group’s paper which came out a few days ago in Advanced Functional Materials.The possibilities for 3D photografting are endless. Probably most exciting are the medical applications. Because scientists can work with living biological materials, there’s hope that this new process will enable new kinds of microscopic testing. In effect, the Austrian researchers say, they can build a “lab on a chip” to see how specific molecules would interact with different environments. They can also artificially grow biological material into any shape or for any function. One thing they can’t do, however, is bioengineer the world’s deadliest virus. Or at least, they’re not talking about it.
Advertisement