The Lattice Brief is 3DHEALS’ weekly intelligence roundup on healthcare 3D printing, bioprinting, biomaterials, and dental additive manufacturing. This week (August 14, 2026): ultra-tough and programmable 3D-printing materials from EPFL and Oak Ridge, an AI-guided new approach methodology (NAM) screening glioblastoma drugs in 3D-bioprinted tumor models, sub-10-micron bioprinted capillaries, Graphy’s takeover of dental-imaging maker Ray, and healthcare leading additive manufacturing’s latest earnings — plus upcoming 3DHEALS events on NAMs and biomaterials.

The big thing

Methods

A printed brain-tumor (GBM) model and an AI algorithm just did an animal study’s job

At the University of Southern California, a team paired a positive-unlabeled machine-learning model with a magnetic-field-guided 3D bioprinting platform to screen ultrasound-activated drugs in physiologically realistic glioblastoma (GBM) spheroids. GBM is one of the most deadly and devastating brain tumors, with no cure and high morbidity. (John McCain, Ted Kennedy, who suffered this terminal disease.) This New Approach Methodology (NAM) surfaced two already-approved drugs: carboplatin and memantine, that outperformed standard-of-care temozolomide under low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (PLOS ONE).

The result worth noting isn’t the two drug hits; it’s the workflow. A printed human-tissue model plus a computational screen did the kind of triage that has historically meant animal studies. This workflow is faster, cheaper, and in a system built from human cells rather than a mouse standing in for one. That is the practical shape of the FDA Modernization Act’s push toward human-relevant preclinical models. That said, caveats apply. This is one disease model, one organ system, one lab, one screen; sonodynamic therapy is early, and “beat temozolomide in a spheroid” is a long way from a clinical endpoint. If you are a skeptic of NAMs, you are not alone. A recent Economist article astutely pointed out that we might never completely abandon animal models. NAMs still face the validation and regulatory-acceptance questions that separate a promising in vitro result from a decision regulator will actually rely on. This is precisely the conversation 3DHEALS is hosting Next Thursday on August 20, New Approach Methodologies: From Theory to Validation. The more curious minds can also check out our recent podcast with Dr. Lowry Curley on this topic.

---

Materials

The most interesting thing in medical 3D printing right now is the material

For a decade, medical 3D printing mostly sold geometry. This week, albeit quiet, is filled with material focused news. At the research frontier, the printed object is learning to do more than hold a shape. EPFL’s double-network granular elastomers are 3D-printable rubbers with up to 15x the fracture toughness and 3x the fatigue resistance of comparable elastomers (Science Advances), durability that matters for anything meant to flex inside the body for years. A Pusan National University–Oak Ridge team printed a smectic liquid-crystal-elastomer ink whose molecular alignment switches mid-print, so a single filament can be programmed to elongate or contract on heating (Nature Communications). Toughness and actuation, decided at the slicer.

At the other end, call it commoditization, 3D printing materials are crossing from novelty into standardized, qualified systems. Axtra3D and Keystone’s KeyPrint brand put KeySplint Hard Clear, a biocompatible resin, onto the Lumia X1. The unglamorous, biocompatibility-qualified material work now reaches chairs and clinics. And Sinto Advanced Ceramics Europe cleared an ISO 9001:2015 audit with zero non-conformities (3D Printing Industry), the quality bar that lets technical ceramics enter regulated sectors including medical technology. Even the deal-making is organizing around materials. Graphy, a shape-memory-alloy clear-aligner-material maker in South Korea, is taking control of dental device company Ray to push its aligner materials across Ray’s roughly 70-country installed base (BigGo Finance). The materials company is buying the hardware, not the reverse. While the dollar amount is small compared to its U.S. counterpart, interested readers may appreciate the corporate drama on display. Put together, it is the biomaterials thesis in miniature: from printing structure to printing function, and from lab novelty toward regulator-legible material systems. The Chemists rule the world! Stay tuned for the highly anticipated 3DHEALS September 10, Biomaterials Frontier event, where we aim to update our audience where biomaterial innovations are.

Regulatory watch

• No new additive-device 510(k) clearances this week — A quiet week at the FDA for AM devices; the regulatory signal was upstream (below). No DARPA or ARPA-H 3D-printing activity either.
• PharmaTher establishes PERSONALIZ3D — A personalized-medicine platform pairing telehealth prescribing with a pharmacy-based pharmaceutical-3D-printing network for compounded medications, framed against recent FDA advisory-committee peptide recommendations. Pre-commercial, but a clear regulatory-tailwind bet.

Clinical & research

• Hybrid bioprinter creates capillary networks narrower than 10 micrometers (Nature Chemical Engineering) — Vascularization is bioprinting’s core bottleneck; capillary-scale channels edge printed tissue toward something that can actually stay alive.
• Scalable 4D biofabrication of scaffold-free, bone-forming callus implants (Trends in Biotechnology) — Scaffold-free constructs that ossify into real bone with marrow, scaled in a bioreactor toward human-sized implants – a translational step for bone regeneration.
• Volumetric bioprinting controls optogenetics deep inside hydrogels (Advanced Materials) — Remote, light-triggered control of cells inside centimeter-scale printed constructs – programming biology, not just structure.

Also this week

• Onkos Surgical reaches 1,000th patient-specific My3D pelvic implant case (VoxelMatters) — An adoption signal for FDA-cleared personalized implants; 350+ US institutions now use the platform for complex pelvic reconstruction.
• Singapore General Hospital’s point-of-care virtual-surgical-planning program (3D ADEPT) — How an in-house VSP + clinical-3D-printing service runs under a full medical-device quality-management system.
• 3D-scanned full-arch dentition vs 3D-printed models: accuracy across printers (Cureus) — In vitro study finds printed dental models within clinically acceptable limits across printer/resin combinations.
• Axtra3D and KeyPrint launch biocompatible KeySplint Hard Clear for the Lumia X1 (3DPrint.com) — A biocompatible dental resin reaching real chairside/lab workflows (also touched on in The big thing).
• 3D printing financials: 3D Systems, Prodways, and Align build on momentum (3DPrint.com) — Healthcare is the strongest AM end market – 3D Systems’ Med Tech grew 20%+ and Align posted record revenue.

From 3DHEALS

• New Approach Methodologies: From Theory to Validation (Aug 20) — Our next virtual event – the validation and regulatory-acceptance questions behind human-relevant preclinical models.
• Biomaterials Frontier (Sep 10) — From printing structure to printing function – where biomaterial innovation is heading.
• Podcast Ep. 122: New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) with Dr. Lowry Curley — Brain organoids, animal-testing alternatives, and what NAMs mean for drug development.

Subscribe to The Lattice Brief