Via Robotic Trends – “A new method of 3D printing, which has been a decade in the making, can produce human-sized bone, muscle, and cartilage. And when implanted into mice and rats, the 3D-printed ear, cartilage and bone all grew and developed blood vessels. The 3D-printed skeletal muscle has similar results, contracting like developing muscle two weeks after implantation. This 3D printing process, called the Integrated Tissue-Organ Printing System (ITOP), was developed by a team of researchers at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine. As outlined in the journal Nature Biotechnology, ITOP produces a network of tiny channels that allows the printed tissue to be nourished after being implanted into a living animal. As soon as more tests are conducted and researchers receive government approval, the technology will be tested on humans…”