Bioprinting Blog

Bioprinted lymph node to generate antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 (credit to Prellis Biologics) Race against COVID-19 Since the pandemic, biotech and pharmaceutical companies are racing to develop diagnostic kits, vaccines and treatments to combat COVID-19. Antibodies, more specifically neutralizing antibodies that can bind to the virus, can help reduce and prevent infection against SARS-CoV-2. This can serve as a prevention for those of us who have not yet been infected or after recovery and reduce effects of those who are infected and in the road to recovery. Now, some of you might wonder, so how is bioprinting going to help create antibodies? Bioprinting a Synthetic Lymph Node  Enter Prellis Biologic s, a Bay Area early-stage venture backed bioprinting company who proposed that they can bioprint a synthetic mini lymph node that will induce immune cells to create human antibodies that are effective against SARS-CoV-2. The beauty of this approach is that there is no ne...

FRESH bioprinting  The beginning Bioprinting of soft materials such as hydrogels have long been impaired by their inability to hold its own form, rendering them "unprintable". Thankfully, in 2015, TJ Hinton and Adam Feinberg published a Science paper introducing the idea of FRESH bioprinting. The term "FRESH" stands for freeform reversible embedding of suspended hydrogels and herein they introduced the idea of using a thermo-reversible support bath to enable in situ bioprinting of complex 3D biological structures. The beauty of this technique lies in the freedom to print complex structures including overhangs while being supported by the temporary gel bath. This breakthrough innovation has truly enable researchers around the world to bioprint complex and intricate structures out of soft biological materials such as collagen, thus pulling off additive manufacturing of realistic tissue models like never before. This video demonstration shows the FRESH printing...

Bioprinting algae? How it all began... In 2015, a group of researchers at the Institute of Food Technology and Bioprocess Engineering and the Center for Translational Bone, Joint and Soft Tissue Research at the Technische Universitat Dresden (TUD) in Germany introduced the idea of "Green Bioprinting". Using bioprinting, they immobilized microalgae in hydrogels made of alginate and methylcellulose, and demonstrated that they were able to achieve stable growth, in contrast to suspension cultures that were dependent on temperature and illumination conditions. Practical applications of this work would include bioproduction of photosynthetic microorganisms for renewable energy, chemicals or pharmaceutical drugs. To learn about this work -  read more . Today... Fast forward 5 years later, a group of researchers from UC San Diego and University of Cambridge showed how microalgae can be bioprinted to create bionic corals of the future - read more . By using a very unique approac...