The researchers of the Los Alamos National Laboratory and Purdue University announced the development of bio-ink they say could help locate regions, tissues and critical organs during surgical operations. The ink used to create biosensors is biocompatible and provides a user-friendly design with excellent featible time frames of more than one day.
The scientists of the project say that new biosensors make it possible to record simultaneously and imaging of tissues and organs during surgical procedures. The material could have a use for recording and imaging simultaneously during cardiac surgery, locating critical regions and guiding surgical procedures, including the restoration procedures for normal heart rhythms. Los Alamos researchers were responsible for the formulation and synthesis of bio-ink.
Their goal was to create an ultra-soft, thin and expandable material for biosensors capable of interfacing with the surface of the organs using 3D printing techniques. Researcher Kwan-Soo Lee says that silicone materials are a liquid flowing like honey, making it very difficult 3D printing without sagging and unfolding problems when printing. Lee says that it is exciting to have found a way to create printed inks that do not have a deformation shaped during the curing process.
The bio-inks are softer than the tissues and stretch without undergoing the degradation of the sensors. They also have a reliable natural adhesion on the wet surface of the organs without the need for additional adhesive. The researchers performed experiments with documents with a patch in vivo assessment by testing both in mice and pigs. The test results have shown that the biosensor has been able to reliably measure the electrical signal while making no alteration of the cardiac function.
There is no indication when or if the material will be transferred to human tests at that time. It is also not known that if the material could be used in traditional surgical settings.