3DBio Therapeutics, the regenerative medicine company based in New York that produced the ear, said it was printed in a shape that “precisely matched” the original ear and will continue to regenerate cartilage tissue, which will give it the look and feel of a natural ear.
The ear was implanted in March as part of an ongoing clinical trial featuring 11 patients.
“This is so exciting, sometimes I have to temper myself a little bit,” Arturo Bonilla, MD, a pediatric ear reconstructive surgeon at the Microtia-Congenital Ear Deformity Institute in San Antonio who performed the implant surgery, told the Times. “If everything goes as planned, this will revolutionize the way this is done.”
