Scientists in Montreal have discovered what researchers are calling the first beneficial use for mosquitoes ever by demonstrating that the insect’s needle can function as a precision nozzle for 3D printing machines. The breakthrough published in Science Advances in November 2025 came from an unexpected place when Megan Creighton and Changhong Cao were originally developing a topical cream to prevent mosquito bites at MIT. They realized during their research just how sophisticated and beautifully engineered the proboscis tube structure is for fluid channels. Glass nozzles currently used for 3D printing cost about 80 dollars apiece to produce and more than 4 billion tips are used in the United States every year, but researchers estimate that a single mosquito proboscis could cost as little as 80 cents to produce while offering the same or better precision.
The test successfully used two kinds of bio-ink to dispense living cellular materials through the proboscides and create high resolution structures in the shape of a honeycomb and a maple leaf. Creighton explained that evolutions in bioprinting are helping medical researchers develop unique approaches to treatment, and the more precisely they can make samples to mimic biological tissue and structures with improved 3D bioprinting the more accurate their testing and ability to design effective treatments becomes. Mosquitoes are responsible for more than a million deaths worldwide every year through transmission of diseases like malaria and dengue, but their biology could now hold answers to valuable medical questions including how their saliva prevents blood clots and how proboscides can inspire designs for less painful injections.
Source: https://www.phillyvoice.com/mosquitos-3d-printing-drexel-research-needle-proboscis/
