A team of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory researchers and their external partners recently created what they’re calling the first living, 3D-printed brain aneurysm to ever exist outside of the human body—and they witnessed it react and mend following a medical procedure conducted to repair it.
Cerebral aneurysms are essentially thin points on a brain artery that bulge out and fill up with blood. They can be deadly if they rupture and are difficult to treat, but those involved in this work believe it could yield a novel testbed for surgical training and pave the way for innovative new healing options.
“By the end of it, we’re aiming to help build a computational model a neurosurgeon can turn to in order to help them decide their best course of action for treating a life-threatening brain aneurysm,” William “Rick” Hynes, an LLNL staff research engineer and the initial principal investigator for the work, recently told Nextgov via email.
Hynes came up with the original idea for the bioprinted aneurysm, and he and the project’s current principal investigator, LLNL biomedical engineer Monica Moya, detailed the promise the development holds for the future, and exactly how the experimental, “living" aneurysm device really came to life.
“I often remind my family members that the field of medicine is more art than science,” Moya explained. “While medicine is supposed to be scientific, its practice is very much an art.”
Producing and Treating the Aneurysm
Brain aneurysms, according to LLNL’s release on the work, come from a weakening in ..
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