A new research centre in Ireland has set its sights on becoming a global research and development hub for the medical 3D printing industry.
The Irish government has laid down incentives to the medical research community in recent years to encourage growth and research.
The €68 million ($76M) Cúram centre at the National University of Ireland in Galway is working on 3D printed muscle and tendon fibres that could eventually be released to the market to help patients.
The facility also has several other high-concept research goals for medical research: minimally invasive injections instead of operations for back pain, electrodes that degrade within the body over time, 3D printed muscles and tendons, and a method to staunch heavy bleeding that could be a lifesaver in a surgical setting.
“We are working with an industry partner and we’ve just finished a clinical trial in that space where we show that the formulation we are working with stops bleeding instantaneously so it reduces the surgical time and the patient time on the table,” said Pprofessor Abhay Pandit, scientific director of Cúram.
The global market 3D printing market could be worth over $20 billion by 2020, according to Forbes.