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The Scar Free Foundation and 3D Bioface head to the House of Commons

What happened when we took a 3D bioprinter to the Big Smoke?

When’s it worth taking a £50,000 bioprinter on an 184 mile train journey? When you’re heading to the Association of Medical Research Charities 2025 Showcase!

The Scar Free Foundation and the Swansea University 3D Bioface team were honoured to be invited to the House of Commons for the Showcase, to celebrate the collective ‘impact of the UK’s medical research charity sector to an audience of MPs and Peers’.

Out of 75 charities, The Scar Free Foundation was one of five chosen to present their research interactively – and what better way to do that than print 3D ears in front of a live audience.

At the moment, patients with missing ears can chose between uncomfortable prosthetics, or surgery to reconstruct the absent cartilage. These procedures are painful, invasive, and cause further scarring.

But the 3D Bioface team are doing things a little differently.

The researchers have developed a unique type of ‘bio-ink’ which encourages cartilage to grow. Combined with cells from the patient, the scientists can 3D-print a scaffold the size and shape of the body part that’s missing.

Eventually, the patient’s cells will fill in the scaffold, leaving researchers with a custom ear or nose that can be surgically implanted on to the patient. In the future, we hope this will be the new gold standard of reconstruction.

AMRC member medical research charities invested £1.7 billion into UK research in 2023. It’s this medical research which is keeping us healthier for longer, and introduces innovative, more effective ways to approach physical and psychological treatments.

Attending Showcases such as these not only offers medical research charities the opportunity to explain the wide-ranging benefits of their work, but forges a bond between the organisations that exist to improve existing medical options and get help to those who need it most.

A huge thank you to the AMRC for having us!