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3D printing is used to create hard objects by using layers of metal or plastic, gradually creating the object. For many years, the doctors have been using the 3-D printers to make hard implants. However, the organs require soft tissues which can be more difficult as the materials required for the purpose are unable to hold their own weight. But the Carnegie Mellon University researchers may have the answer to the problem by devising a method that can help print soft objects by layering the materials with the help of special gel, reports UPI.

Adam Feinberg, associate professor of material science and engineering at Carnegie Mellon and also the lead author of the study, said that the research was comparatively easy as they used the regular 3-D printer that one can buy off-the-shelf and open-source software to enhance the software program that it operates. He also said in a press release, "The challenge with soft materials -- think about something like Jello that we eat -- is that they collapse under their own weight when 3-D printed in air. So we developed a method of printing these soft materials inside a support bath material. Essentially, we print one gel inside of another gel, which allows us to accurately position the soft material as it's being printed, layer by layer", reported the Standard Daily

The reserachers are in the process of developing the printing that they call Freeform Reversible Embedding or Suspended Hydrogels or FRESH that begins with a suitably sized container of support gel. The printer will be equipped with a needle that will inject the other gels into the support gel with the help of computer-led design models. Once the structure has been built, the support gel will be melted and the end result will be a soft product that has been created by printing. In their test, the researchers created human brains, coronary arteries etc using this method, reports BBC.