National Science Foundation News | Bioprinting Organs #science #news #bioprinting @NSFScience | Uploaded August 2024 | Updated October 2024, 4 hours ago.
3D printing has developed in the last 50 years from a liquid metal technique for making prototypes, to casual hobbyists using computer renderings to print plastic objects in their homes. Now, modern researchers are now using 3D printing techniques with biomedical applications.
We’ll explore in the U.S. National Science Foundation’s “Discovery Files”.

Today’s 3D printing is based on the concept of voxels, small cubes or spheres that are the basic building blocks of three-dimensional objects, the equivalent of pixels in a two-dimensional picture. The precise manipulation of these voxels when using bio-inks is considered a grand challenge in biomanufacturing.

NSF-supported engineers at the University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science have developed a method for controlling these bio-ink based voxels that could one day allow human-compatible organs to be printed on demand.

This new bioprinting method is called digital assembly of spherical particles or DASP. The technique begins with water-based bio-inks being placed on a support to build 3D structures that are suitable for cells to grow on.

The hydrogel bio-inks are mechanically strong and highly tunable for mimicking the physical characteristics of human tissue.

The technique lays the foundation for fully realized voxelated bioprinting. The potential applications include effectiveness tests for new drugs, disease and tissue modeling, and artificial organ transplant.