Clinically Relevant Silk-Based Affordable Healthcare Products: Tailoring Smart, Multi-Faceted 3D Printed Implants and Diagnostics

Research Highlights: 3D Printing, Silk-based Bioinks, In vitro Models, Disease Models, Miniaturized Bioreactors, Smart Multifunctional Implants, Affordable Healthcare Products.

Increasing life expectancy in Indian population has also enhanced the risk to suffer age related traumatic and pathological events, those associated mainly with cardiovascular and hepatic systems. The medical outlay costs associated with these conditions are expensive (> 10,00,000 INR) due to the high costs of the existing implants in the market which are mostly imported from European/American markets. Furthermore, other limitations include donor site morbidity and unavailability of auto/allogenic grafts. The constantly escalating costs of the medical implants and the associated pathological conditions point towards a need for sustainable and affordable approach in healthcare. For addressing these problem definitions and motivations from the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat” and ‘Innovation India’ missions (as conceived by the Government of India), we at IIT Guwahati are aiming towards developing ‘new generation smart 3D printed biomedical implants as sustainable and affordable healthcare products and high throughput drug screening platforms’ using inexpensive and patient specific smart biomaterials for improving the current clinical scenario.

Towards green and smart technology, using 3D printing and silk-based smart biomaterials, we have identified the following objectives:

1. Green synthesis and characterization of an array of silk based smart bio-instructive bioink formulations. 

2. 3D printed liver models for drug screening applications.

3. 3D printed osteoarthritic model for drug screening applications.

4. Silk based 3D printed small diameter vascular grafts for coronary artery bypass surgery.

5. Functional assessment of 3D printed vascular grafts in animal models.