Biomedical engineers from the University of Melbourne have developed a high-speed 3D bioprinting system capable of creating structures that closely mimic a range of human tissues, from soft brain tissue to tougher materials like cartilage and bone.

According to Mr Chuen, Director of Vascular Surgery at Austin Health and a Clinical Fellow at the University of Melbourne, 3D printing technology is going to transform medicine, whether it is patient-specific surgical models, custom-made prosthetics, personalised on-demand medicines, or even 3D printed human tissue. And his do-it-yourself approach has now grown into a 3D Medical Printing Laboratory at the hospital with help from the Universi...

  Chemical engineers at the University of Melbourne have found a way to 3D print smart polymers (or plastics) that can perform a function, in a way that is cheaper, cleaner and more accessible than ever before.

  Researchers have developed a nanoscale engineering method that transforms tiny particles into "LEGO- like" modular building blocks. Led by the University of Melbourne and published in Nature Nanotechnology, the work holds promise for micro and nano scale applications including drug delivery, chemical sensing and energy storage.

A team of material scientists from the University of Melbourne and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) has shown for the first time how gravity influences the formation of crystals in Metal-Organic Frameworks. These are nano-sized synthetic structures riddled with molecular holes that are at the forefront of materials science.

Scientists can now identify the exact location of a single atom in a silicon crystal, a discovery that is key to greater accuracy in the operation of tomorrow's silicon-based quantum computers. It's now possible to track and see individual phosphorus atoms in a silicon crystal allowing confirmation of quantum computing capability but which also has use in nano detection devices. Quantum computing has the potential for enormous processing power in...

A radical process that allows hydrogen to be efficiently sourced from liquid formic acid could be one step forward in the making of hydrogen-powered cars. Using formic acid to produce hydrogen has never been considered viable because it requires high temperatures to decompose and also produces waste by-products. But the University of Melbourne's Professor Richard O'Hair has led an international team of scientists in designing a molecula...

University of Melbourne doctors and engineers are using supercomputers to create 3D models from patients with heart disease, with photos from a camera thinner than a human hair. The images, gathered during a routine angiogram, are fed into a supercomputer. Within 24 hours, a model of a person's artery is 3D printed. This gives cardiologists crucial information about the behaviour of blood flow and the precise structure of the artery from the insi...

A group of paralysed patients will soon undergo a revolutionary procedure that could allow them to walk with the power of thought. The key to returning mobility is a tiny, matchstick-sized device called a stentrode. It will be implanted into a blood vessel next to the motor cortex, the brain’s control centre – bypassing the need for complex brain surgery.