3D ‘ear’ hears, transmits

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This article was published 04/07/2013 (4602 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

PRINCETON, N.J. — With a 3D printer, a Petri dish and some cells from a cow, Princeton University researchers are growing synthetic ears that can receive — and transmit — sound.

The scientists send bovine cells mixed in a liquid gel through the printer, followed by tiny particles of silver. The printer is programmed to shape the material into a bionic ear and forms the silver particles into a coiled antenna. Like any antenna, this one can pick up radio signals the ear will interpret as sound.

The 3D ear is not designed to replace a human one, however; the research is exploring a new method of combining electronics with biological material.

“What we really did here was actually more of a proof of concept of the capabilities of 3D printing,” said Michael McAlpine, the professor who led the project. “Because most people use 3D printing to print passive objects — things like figurines and jewelry.”

After it’s printed, the 3D ear is soft and translucent. It is cultivated for 10 weeks, letting the cells multiply, creating a flesh colour and forming hardened tissue around the antenna.

Manu Mannoor, a graduate student who worked with McAlpine on the project, held up a Petri dish in a lab at Princeton last week to show how the process works. The dish was filled with liquid and a partly cultivated ear, and Mannoor said the cells were secreting a matrix, the space between cells that exists in organisms.

McAlpine and his team demonstrated the antenna’s ability to pick up radio signals by attaching electrodes to the backs of the ears in the printing process. When they broadcast a recording of Beethoven’s Fur Elise to a pair of fully cultivated ears, the electrodes transmitted the signal along wires to a set of speakers and the music flowed out clearly and without interference.

McAlpine said his research could lead to synthetic replacements for human functions and to a sort of electronic sixth sense.

“As the world becomes a more digital and electronic place, I think ultimately we’re going to care less about our traditional five senses,” he said. “And we’re going to want these new senses to give us direct electronic communication with our cellphones and our laptop devices.”

 

— The Associated Press