An Ohio agency has contracted with the University of Pittsburgh and several corporate partners to create biodegradable tissue repair structures for the human body using 3-D printers.
Youngstown-based National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute’s America Makes program awarded Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering and the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine an 18-month, $590,000 contract to use biodegradable alloys in tissue repair. Corporate partners include ExOne of North Huntingdon, Magnesium Elektron of Madison, Ill., and Cinnaminson, N.J.-based Hoeganaes Corp.
“Thanks to CAT scans, we can directly image a damaged structure like a bone or trachea and construct a biodegradable iron-manganese based scaffold to promote natural tissue growth during the healing process,” Howard Kuhn, adjunct professor of industrial engineering, said in a prepared statement. “Rather than implanting an inert screw and plate or joint, we can utilize a degradable metallic alloy, which provides the template allowing the body’s own regenerative machinery to provide an effective pathway to heal itself.”
America Makes, which awarded the contract through NAMII, is the pilot institute for up to 45 manufacturing innovation institutes, and it is driven by the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining.