New Technique to Print a 3D 'Living Tatto"


MIT Engineers have developed a New 3D printing technique that uses a new type of ink material made from genetically programmed living cells.

      The cells are engineered to light up in response to a variety of stimuli Thus When mixed with a slurry of hydrogel and nutrients, the cells can be printed, layer by layer to form three-dimensional structures and devices. 
      The team has then demonstrated its technique by printing a "living tattoo"—a thin, transparent patch patterned with live bacteria cells in the shape of a tree. Each branch of the tree is lined with cells sensitive to a different chemical or molecular compound. When the patch is adhered to skin that has been exposed to the same compounds, corresponding regions of the tree light up in response.
         The researchers also engineered bacteria to communicate with each other and they programmed some cells to light up only when they receive a specific signal from another cell. To test this type of communication in a 3-D structure, they printed a thin sheet of hydrogel filaments with "input," or signal-producing bacteria and chemicals, overlaid with another layer of filaments of an "output," or signal-receiving bacteria. They found the output filaments lit up only when they overlapped and received input signals from corresponding bacteria .
"This is very future work, but we expect to be able to print living computational platforms that could be wearable," Paper's Co-author Hyunwoo Yuk says. 
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