A girl injured in a fire and a woman recovering from cancer are hoping to be among the world’s first patients to get 3D-printed ears.
Brave Elizabeth, six, and Tina Morgan have visited researchers who are using cloned cells to create new cartilage.
Medics hope the printing method, which builds the cartilage layer by layer, will let them make body parts that can be successfully grafted onto patients.
Birmingham lass Elizabeth lost an ear, several fingers and suffered scarring in the fire when she was six months old.
She needs daily treatment to manage her pain and said the Swansea University project was “exciting”.
Tina, from Merthyr Tydfil near Cardiff, is missing part of an ear after surgery to remove skin cancer. She said the project “could change our lives.”
Current reconstruction methods see surgeons carving parts of a rib and inserting them under the skin, but Tina did not want the painful procedure.
“When I saw the research I thought it seemed a more feasible way to help not only me but other people,” she said.
Elizabeth’s dad, Liam, called the research “incredible” adding: “Elizabeth lost an ear, so if one was printed using her cells that would be amazing.
“We’re hoping [it] will benefit children so they don’t have to deal with the physical and mental impact of scars.”
Researcher Prof Iain Whitaker hopes for clinical trials in “two to five years”.
