Release date: 2016-06-21
On June 14, at a Zero Gravity Corporation aircraft at 30,000 feet in the Gulf of Mexico, scientists successfully printed the first available heart structure in 3D at zero gravity . The company responsible for the project is Techshot from Southern Indiana, USA. The company is a long-term technical contractor for NASA. It has a 25-year history of developing new technologies in the aerospace, defense, and medical fields.
Zero Gravity is the only company approved by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to provide weightless flight services in the United States. 
In addition, participants in the project include industrial-grade 3D printer manufacturer nScrypt and bio-ink supplier Bioficial Organs. The R&D team hopes that the project will not only enable scientists to create organs that can be implanted on Earth in space, but will continue to support the space program. According to Tiangong, adult stem cells are used in this 3D printing process.
“On Earth, 3D bioprinting often requires the use of viscous bio-ink to provide structural support, which contains chemicals and other materials,†explains Stuart Williams, chairman and CEO of Bioficial Organs, at a press conference. "But if you print tissue in space, we can use a finer printhead and low-viscosity bio-ink that contains only the biomaterials needed to create a healthy organ. One is installed in space." 3D bioprinters are promising to be an important disruptor to human health."
According to Tiangong, Williams is one of the passengers of this zero-gravity aircraft. Together with John Vellinger, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Techshot, he helped to operate 3D bioprinters during the test. 
It is reported that the data collected in this test will enable Techshot and its partners to develop a smaller, more robust 3D bio-printer, and this machine is likely to take Blue Origin's sub-orbital spacecraft in January next year. . According to the plan, the R&D team hopes to create a bio-printer that can print more complex organizations and send it to the International Space Station in 2018 .
It is understood that at the end of last year, Techshot announced that it has developed a method to use the patient's own stem cells to make large human blood vessels. But the company claims that the technology they tested on weightless aircraft is much more elaborate than this. They print layers of cells that are many times thinner than hair.
In addition, 3D electronic printing technology was also involved in the June 14 test, and Techshot said the prototype 3D printer also printed conductive and insulating materials.
Source: Tiangongshe
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