SEARCH FOR SCI CURE: 3D printing as a cure? A possibility

We’ve been featuring on a regular basis various efforts throughout the world to help cure paralysis and during this time, we’ve included some articles that have done some serious raising of eyebrows but we think this one might top them all: using 3D printing implant laced with stem cells to mimic the functionality of the spinal cord.

A four-centimeter implant modeled to fit an actual human spinal cord injury.

Think of scaffolding and you can imagine how this approach is being applied to the spinal cord, except that this is more permanent. If you think this is science fiction, the UC San Diego researchers claim that in tests on rodents, the 3D spinal cord and stem cells spurred new neuron growth and helped restore function, a monumental achievement.

You can read the article and a video reporting from a local TV station HERE. If you wish to learn more about this work, which is years away from demonstrating feasibility, you can read the more detailed description of their work HERE.