Fabricating Bone
Inkjet printing and rapid prototyping technologies are finding their place in the field of tissue engineering. Fabrication of bone, for example, is moving forward nicely. From LiveScience: "First, the patient's actual bone structure is scanned with X-ray and CT scanners. The resulting data is combined to make a three-dimensional computer model of the bone; a set of cross-sections is sent to the special 3D inkjet printer. The 3D inkjet printer prints onto thin layers of powdered alpha-tricalcium phosphate (alpha-TCP); the printer 'ink' is a water-based polymer that hardens the alpha-TCP. Successive laydowns of powder and polymer 'prints out' the bone cross-sections to an accuracy of one millimeter. The resulting artificial bone is lightweight and porous; very similar to the original human bone used as a model ... the new artificial bones created from the alpha-tricalcium phosphate powder and polymer are ten times stronger than earlier implants made from hydroxylapatite ... Researchers [have] performed trials on ten people in the past year and a half [and] hope to make the technology commercially available by 2010."
Link: http://www.livescience.com/technology/070815_inkjet_bones.html