Technology inspired by 3D printing could transform how medicines are tailored to patients

Technology inspired by 3D printing is already being introduced in hospitals and specialized pharmacies to produce personalized medicines tailored to individual patients. In her doctoral thesis at Åbo Akademi University, Mahsa Bahman investigated how the approach can improve dosing accuracy and make customized treatments more widely available.

Many medicines today are produced in standard doses, even though patients often have very different treatment needs. In her doctoral thesis in drug development at Åbo Akademi University, Bahman investigated a technology that could make it easier to produce medicines tailored to individual patients, helping improve dose accuracy and access to treatment.

Personalized medicines are particularly important for children, older patients and others who require doses that are not commercially available. Today, health care professionals and caregivers may need to split tablets or adapt existing medicines, which can make accurate dosing difficult.

In her research, Bahman studied a technology that uses a 3D printing–inspired manufacturing process to produce medicines in individually tailored doses. The system works by dispensing carefully measured amounts of a gel-like formulation, allowing pharmacists to create patient-specific treatments while maintaining consistent quality.

“Children often need medicine strengths that do not exist as commercial products. With this technology, pharmacists can manufacture dosage forms containing exactly the dose an individual child requires,” says Bahman.

The research examined how the technology can be used to manufacture a wide range of personalized medicines and evaluated factors such as dose accuracy, product quality, stability and consistency. The work also investigated how the technology performs in a hospital pharmacy environment.

The technology may also benefit older patients whose medication needs change over time, patients with rare diseases requiring specialized doses and hospital patients who need frequent dose adjustments. It may also help in situations where medicine shortages affect the availability of commercial products.

The thesis is also notable because it was carried out entirely within industry. Bahman conducted her doctoral research as an industrial doctoral researcher at CurifyLabs, a Finnish health technology company and spinoff of Åbo Akademi University. The work illustrates how academic research and industry collaboration can help translate scientific advances into practical health care solutions.

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Swati Mestri

Swati Mestri holds a bachelor’s degree in Electronics Engineering and has worked as a content editor since 2019. She has experience editing research documents across technology, health care, and materials science, and has a particular interest in technology and space.

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Robert Egan

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