Welcome to a world where we can cure blindness, chronic pain and neurological diseases with 3D printed surgical implants [Video]

Newswise — Clever bio-inks that sit inside the human body and restore damaged neurons could cure a whole swathe of diseases in the next 20 years: conditions that have baffled scientists and clinicians for centuries.

Think blindness, deafness, chronic pain, epilepsy, motor neurone disease, and Parkinson’s disease.

According to University of South Australia materials engineer Associate Professor Matthew Griffith, these ‘incurable’ diseases are all linked to misfiring neurons that humans have not been able to control.

However, new technology being developed by Dr Griffith and his team at UniSA’s Future Industries Institute could overcome these obstacles, offering hope to billions of people around the world.

The researchers are creating carbon-based biocompatible inks printed into soft flexible devices that can be surgically implanted, electronically communicating with the neural network on demand.  

“The aim is to reprogram injury and diseases out of existence by printing cheap, electronic devices that can talk to our bodies in a language it understands,” …