Artificial placenta printed on a chip

A team of researchers at Technische Universität Wien (Vienna, Austria) have successfully 3D printed an artificial placental barrier on a chip. Until recently, it has been difficult to understand what the permeability of the placenta depends on due to the difficulty of directly investigating its function in humans. To combat this, researchers at Technische Universität Wien (TU Wien; Vienna, Austria) have 3D printed an artificial placenta model that closely resembles the natural organ. The team utilized a specially developed femtosecond laser-based 3D printing process to produce a customized hydrogel membrane printed within a microfluidic chip, before populating it with placenta...