Artificial Human Cornea 3D Printed In 10 Minutes By Researchers At Newcastle University

Researchers at Newcastle University are now able to develop advanced artificial human cornea which can be 3D-printed in just 10 minutes.

Che Connon, Professor of Tissue Engineering at Newcastle University said, “He has been working on the biology of the eye, understand eyes structure and Cornea in order to recreate it or repair it in sophisticated ways.” Mashable reported.

The researchers at Newcastle University have created a special bio-ink using human stem cells, that needed to be both thin and stiff in order to 3D-print human artificial Cornea.

Che said, when we look into creating or tissue engineer cornea, we carefully review carefully the shape, size, and structure of the Cornea which is very important, so we chose to use the 3D-bio printer to print the Cornea perfectly as required. This way you can control the manufacture of Cornea layer-by-layer building up a Cornea particular shape.”

It is important to mention that the material used in printing is cell-friendly which means the cells inside the gel as it is used in printing remain alive, even after the Cornea is printed, he added.

The Researcher’s goal is to help millions of people to see once again, as the donor tissues cannot meet the demand there is a need for alternative and especially in under-developed countries, there is no availability of well-executed eye banks. Our research will help all those people worldwide to see through artificial human Cornea. However, the technology itself requires great attention and care, it might take several years to build artificial human Cornea that practically becomes the human eye, the professor said.