New nanotechnology 3D printing now allows scientists to print designer drugs one molecule at a time. This new technology will undoubtedly save many lives as they get better and better at doing it, and is just another example of how 3D printing is disruptive technology that will change everything.
Bioengineering scientists from Parabon Nanolabs have developed a new drug to fight gliobalstoma — a lethal brain cancer.– using a computer aided design (CAD) program linked to a special search platform and nano-scale, 3D printer. The technology allows a designed drug to be built, and then ‘printed out”, one atom/one molecule at a time, like a ‘molecular sentence’ on paper. The cancer-fighting drug was designed using a new DNA self-assembly technique enabled by a ‘drag and drop’ feature of the CAD program.