NUS unveils additive manufacturing facilities to aid healthcare sector

Local hospitals were tapped to support adoption of the technology.

The National University of Singapore established the Centre for Additive Manufacturing (AM.NUS) that will work with industry and local hospitals to support the adoption of advanced manufacturing technology in Singapore’s healthcare sector.

The establishment of AM.NUS is jointly supported by NAMIC and the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB). With an initial funding of $18m from NUS, National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Cluster, and EDB, AM.NUS will focus on developing and applying ground-breaking additive manufacturing (AM) technology in the biomedical and healthcare fields.

The new centre will also leverage on NUS’ multidisciplinary expertise from the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, Faculty of Engineering, Faculty of Science, Faculty of Dentistry and School of Design and Environment, to boost the university’s capabilities in the field of AM-enabled biomedical technology.

The centre will develop customisable surgical tools and simulators for educating the next generation of doctors or simplifying difficult clinical tasks. The team will also design functional prosthetics using AM technology.

Additionally, the use of AM-enabled drug formulations and individualised control of dosage/ drug release will be explored, as well as new solutions to regenerate and replace damaged tissues by using advanced materials and scaffold printing techniques, combined with tissue engineering.

It will also explore functional printing and developing of ceramic and metal AM materials and processes, in order to bring novel and more biocompatible implants to market. The centre will also touch on the use of AM in dental implant design and tissue engineering.