My first encounter with 3D printing—beyond the occasional sighting of the written term—took place at a booth in the exhibit hall of a gaming convention. The vendors were hawking small 3D printers as do-it-yourself alternatives to buying miniatures and props for assorted roleplaying games (think Dungeons and Dragons). They showed us a few examples of their printed products: walls for use in building dungeons, small humanoid figures to represent player characters, assorted traps and treasure chests for flavor. At the time, I let these products stand as prime examples of 3D printing’s possibilities. It was a neat technology, able to process plastic into toys and game pieces on demand, but I didn’t imagine there could be more to it than that. Little did I know that 3D printing’s potential lay far beyond the walls of plastic dungeons and into the life-changing realm of medicine.

In their June 2019 MRS Bulletin article, based on the MRS/Kavli Future of Materials Workshop on “3D Printing of Biomedical Materials and Devices” held after the 2017 MRS Fall Meeting, Bose et al. present an overview of 3D printing in medicine in the context of materials science. 3D printing (referred to as 3DP in the article) is a method of manufacturing that offers significant benefits in the production of biomaterials and biomedical devices. 3DP constructs its products layer-by-layer with the guidance of computer-aided-design (CAD) files. These CAD files are 3D models created by hand or through computed tomography (CT) scans that can be used to model a patient’s internal geometry and structure, allowing for the creation of devices suited to each patient’s specific needs.

These needs vary wildly in type and ideal solution, but 3DP has versatility to match. 3DP offers many avenues for treatment personalization, such as customizable bone grafts and implants, “patient-specific tooling” for use in surgery, surface-altering coatings for metals and ceramics, and individualized drug administrations that take into account age, dosage, weight, and anatomy. 3DP products can also be used for education or surgical preparation by providing students with accurate models on which to practice and giving surgeons a chance to troubleshoot implants and procedures before the actual surgery.

3DP’s versatility extends to materials. Bose et al. trace some of the different types of materials utilized in the creation and workings of biomedical devices, including metals, ceramics, polymers, composites, and biomaterials. Each of these materials has its specialties. Metals, for example, are ideal for “load-bearing biomedical applications such as hip and knee arthroplasty,” while ceramics can create implants used to treat bone defects. Where ceramics are too brittle to function, polymers and polymer composites can sometimes step in. Biomaterials, used in bioprinting, have built new, more ethical avenues of study in disease and bacterial growth, and may one day eradicate the need for organ donation by allowing for the manufacture of viable artificial organs.

Each material faces its own production problems, however. Metal powder is used in 3DP and “leaching of this powder into the body is a major concern,” as structures created through these processes “often maintain a surface with partially melted particles.” Ceramic is brittle and requires “high-temperature densification” for proper processing. Bioprinting must grapple with one of the most daunting challenges in its quest for printed organ viability: avoiding rejection of the organ by the receiving body.

For gamers, 3DP provides easier access to game-changing pieces. In medicine, 3DP is itself a game-changing treasure trove of current and future innovations. Bose et al. envision a world in which, “with the help of 3DP, more complex surgeries will be performed with a higher success rate at various hospitals, more patient-matched devices will be used to treat complex health issues, and the availability of a variety of artificial tissues will make tissue engineering a more common healthcare intervention process than before.” 3DP, with its versatility of materials and diverse potential uses, could elevate this world from fantasy to reality.

Read the full article, Clinical significance of three-dimensional printed biomaterials and biomedical devices, published in MRS Bulletin with our compliments for a limited time only. MRS Bulletin is a co-publication by the Materials Research Society and Cambridge University Press.