The researchers used an inkjet printer to print living retinal cells of adult rats, which could be built up and used to create replacements for defective eye tissues.
"This is the first time that cells from the adult central nervous system have been successfully printed," professor Keith Martin told Dezeen. "We've demonstrated that you can take cells from the retina and you can effectively separate them out. These can be put in an inkjet printer and we can print those cells out in any pattern we like and we've shown that those cells can survive and thrive."
Martin hopes the development is a step towards treating retinal diseases such as glaucoma and macular degeneration, the two biggest causes of blindness in the UK.
The team found that the cells weren't distorted when fired out of the printer at high speed, counter to predictions.
"Effectively you can fire these cells at about 30 miles per hour and they survive that perfectly well," said Martin. "[This] was a real surprise to us because we didn't expect the cells to be able to survive being fired out of a cannon."
Wonderful to think that someday, 20/20 color vision may be available to everyone.
