3D printing technologies created gel-like molds that allowed living cells to grow into human liver tissue, which also provided it enough oxygen and nutrients to function for 30 days.
Jun. 10—NASA has a problem. It wants to send humans on long-distance space missions — to Mars or beyond — but the human body does not thrive under the rigors
Teams Engineer Complex Human Tissues, Win Top Prizes in NASA Challenge
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WASHINGTON, June 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ Two teams of scientists from the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM) in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, have won first and second place in NASA s Vascular Tissue Challenge. The prize competition aims to accelerate tissue engineering innovations to benefit people on Earth today and space explorers in the future.
Competing as teams Winston and WFIRM, each used a different approach to create lab-grown human liver tissues that were strong enough to survive and function in ways similar to those inside the human body. The teams each used a varied 3D printing technique to construct a cube-shaped tissue about one centimeter thick and capable of functioning for 30 days in the lab.