Allevi Blog

Bioprinting Offers Hope of New Treatments for Cancer Patients

Univ of Waikato 3d bioprinter bioprint allevi .jpg

Our amazing users at The University of Waikato will use their Allevi 2 to research new treatment paths for cancer patients that could eventually lead to cancer tumors being treated outside patients’ bodies.

“Currently the easiest way to do pharmaceutical tests on cancer cells is using 2D models which is basically a petri dish where the cells stick to the bottom of the dish and you analyse them. But humans are three dimensional and 2D doesn’t really present an actual human tumour,”

“With a 3D bioprinter, we can give cells a 3D environment and analyse how the cells interact with each other. Once we get the tumours made, we can slice them into sections and use a confocal microscope to study them.”

“In the future what could happen is if someone has breast cancer, we could take their tumour cells and print out a tumour and try out different drugs on it and see which treatments work and what works best for the patient. It’s all about making treatment more patient specific.”

Shalini Guleria, Masters Student at The University of Waikato

We are constantly inspired by this amazing community of scientists who are changing the way we design, heal and build with life. And we’re here to support them along the way! Read on to learn more about this incredible research.

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