L'observatoire Data & Créativité by iligo

3D printed bones

Particle3D was founded in 2014 by two engineering students and one of their professor. They created a solution to replace destroyed or surgically removed bones. The brand has received several awards for developing this new technology. One of it is the Danish Venture Cup 2017 & Best Danish health Tech Startup 2019.

Particle3D is a company that recreates bones with a 3D printed implant solution to replace destroyed bones. Bones tissue reconstruction is a surgery frequently performed for different reasons: accidents, diseases…
Actually, to treat patients, surgeons use harvested bones or titanium that stay in patients’ bodies for the rest of their lives.

The innovative technology prints 3D bones with a completely degradable bio-ink composed of β-tricalcium phosphate and fatty acids which are naturals components that exist in the body.
It allows to reconstruct patient’s exact anatomy, fitted characteristics such as porosity. It then allows a strong and rapid ingrowth of bones tissue and low risk of complications due to bacterial infections as the immune system is allowed access to the entirety of the implant.
Easily moldable, it leads to real living bone tissue and it is slowly degradable allowing surgeons to restore the patient’s tissue to its former shape and composition. Also, it includes implants designed to deliver additives such as antibiotics, chemotherapy or growth factors.
The substance can be released from implants over a controlled period time, to kill bacteria or cancer cells, maintaining a nontoxic level in the middle of the therapeutic window for a long time.

To create it, Particle3D had worked in collaboration with surgeons to provide implants specifically adapted to each patient by using their personal CT (computed tomography) data.
This improves the outcome for the patient as the implant provides exact anatomic repair. Also, it provides a reduction of time, because the surgeon does not need to manually adjust implants during surgery

The dispositive has been tested on several animals (mice and pigs) and has shown that the 3D bones implants perform as well as predicted with a nice integration.
The robustness of the device is free from bacteria and support the new vascularization of the bone.