UNSW Sydney is 'pushing the envelope' to help medical professionals with novel advancements in 3D printed patient-specific body parts.
Biomedical engineers at UNSW Sydney have their sights on developing anatomically accurate 3D printed models which mimic exactly the way body parts feel and move.
The ambitious plans come after researchers at the Tyree Foundation Institute of Health Engineering (IHealthE) recently designed and created a patient-based anatomical 3D model of a young child’s skull which helped surgeons devise and plan an innovative way of successfully removing a life-threatening tumour.
The team also created an exact replica of a specific patient’s trachea (windpipe) to help clinicians determine whether a certain surgical procedure could be performed safely.
Now the team is considering ways to make future 3D prints even more useful for medical professionals, by developing the use of different printing materials that recreate the complex way body parts feel and move.
What we have been doing is making patient-specific 3D printed models so that clinicians can practise specific surgery techniques unique to their patient.
“They are geometrically and anatomically accurate, which is really useful. But I think the future in this space is using even more realistic materials during the 3D printing process and therefore understanding how parts of the body are actually going to bend and flex during surgeries,” said Dr Keng- Yin Lai, a postdoctoral research fellow at UNSW who helped create the models.
UNSW’s IHealthE is based in the new Integrated Acute Services Building (IASB) and features a number of labs, with the bespoke patient-specific 3D printing service, believed to be unique in Australia, borne out of the recent relocation. Within the new building, UNSW is housing state-of-the-art research, clinical innovation, biomedical and teaching facilities across 10 floors.
The spaces are designed to facilitate partnerships in tech solutions for diagnosis, treatment and prevention of a wide range of conditions, with researchers and clinicians sharing ideas, prototypes and data analyses. Pictured: Dr Keng-Yin Lai with the 3D print of a patients skull, and (inset) an alternate view of the life-sized print. Images courtesy of UNSW/Richard Freeman.
Published January 2025