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A team of biomechanical engineers and surgeons at McGill University has developed the world’s smallest 3D bioprinting robot, designed to repair damaged vocal cords with unprecedented precision. Reported by lead author Swen Groen in collaboration with senior author Luc Mongeau, the study describes a soft, flexible robot just 2.7 millimeters wide that can fit inside the human throat and deliver healing hydrogels directly to injured vocal folds. This innovation could revolutionize vocal cord surgery, which often leaves patients with scarring and long-term voice problems.
Inspired by the dexterity of an elephant’s trunk, the bioprinter’s design uses cable-controlled flexibility to maneuver through the narrow airway. The nozzle at the tip of its “trunk” extrudes a hyaluronic acid-based hydrogel in fine 1.2 mm lines, allowing surgeons to manually reconstruct vocal tissue in real time. Despite its tiny size, the device is stable and highly accurate, even in the confined space of the throat, offering a major advance over conventional injection-based techniques.
Early tests on synthetic vocal folds showed that the robot could precisely replicate the intricate structure of human vocal tissue, effectively repairing lesions and defects. Future versions may include semi-autonomous control, enabling faster and safer procedures.
If validated in animal and human trials, this elephant-inspired bioprinting tool could mark a turning point in regenerative surgery—giving patients who have lost their voices a chance to speak again through meticulously printed layers of living tissue.
