What is a molecular 3D printer?
The medical doctor Martin Burke at the University of Illinois developed a new kind of 3D printer, that will not only revolutionize the use of 3D printing for healthcare but the whole medical industry. To make it simple, Martin D. Burke created a molecular printer, a 3D machine actually able to 3D print molecules. Does it sound crazy? Yes, but it is now a reality!
This printer is able to print at a new scale, with chemicals. Each chemical building block have connectors, the role of the molecular printer is to automate the process to connect the building blocks together, and then create a chemical reaction. The hard part for Burke and his team was to the cleanup the byproduct and to isolate correctly the molecule after the chemical reaction. They succeed, and give life to an impressive prototype of 3D molecular printer! The idea with this 3D molecular machine is to copy the way nature works when creating small molecules.
Doctor Martin Burke affirms that this technology is able to synthesize molecules, which has never been synthesized before. This innovative 3D machine can systematically synthesize thousands of different molecules, in at least 14 distinct classes of small molecules.
New horizons for medical 3D printing
A machine offering new possibilities to create medications
Printing organic compounds is a great news for medical researchers, as this technology can be used for the development of new drugs. By creating molecules from scratch, these chemical syntheses, new drugs will be developed. This 3D printer is making it possible to create medicinal compounds. It could significantly improve the way medications are created, allowing to print in no time molecules that could take years to be crafted by chemists.
Moreover, thanks to Burke and his team, this machine could allow getting quite easily extremely rare molecules. It could even create things that never have been done before by humans. This way, scientist, and doctors could test the medicinal properties of molecules that never have been used before!
We saw previously that 3D printing is becoming a great asset in the medical industry and is allowing to save lives, and improve the life comfort of patients. Additive manufacturing to create molecule is clearly offering possibilities that we can’t even imagine for the moment.
The future of 3D printing is really promising
3D printing at new scales
We know that the 3D printing technology is becoming more and more accurate. We are noticing the development of XL 3D printers but also 3D printers allowing to print at a small scale.
Additive manufacturing is a real game changer for many different industries. Indeed, new XL printers to print at architectural scale projects such as 3D printed houses or 3D printed bridges. The 3D printing technology is always going further and it keeps going!
As traditional 3D printing showed all of its unbeatable advantages (waste reduction, time-saving, faster product development, and so on), the expansion of the use of 3D printing appears to be inevitable. To be implemented in other various industries, it has allowed printing at bigger and smaller scales.
