From VOA Learning English, this is the Technology Report.Three-dimensional printers are fast becoming everyday devices in the United States.Three-D printers are used to make everything from automobile parts to bone replacements for human patients.American research scientists are now working on creating replacements for living tissue.Researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina have been working on creating and manufacturing living tissue since 2003.This process is called biofabrication. It requires special printing equipment and a special kind of ink.Traditional printers require ink to produce an image or design on a piece of paper.For their three-D printer, the South Carolina researchers prepare complex nutritious solutions they call bio-inks.Bio-inks are made of proteins and glucose, which normally provides energy for most cells of the body.The researchers also add living cells taken from the animal that will receive the new, printed tissue.
