The creation of highly-organized multicellular biological tissues and organoids will revolutionize the field of regenerative medicine. It can also provide in vitro platforms for disease models and drug screening, therefore constitutes one of the major research thrusts in tissue engineering. Since different biological tissues show both structural diversity and complexity, versatile and flexible tissue manufacturing techniques are warranted to generate tissue architecture-of-interest in an on-demand fashion.
We have designed and built an original bioprinter that is able to produce biomimetic soft tissues. Our printer and printing technique overcome the unique obstacles in printing soft tissue. The printing of tissue requires extreme precision, which is achieved through the cross-linking. As the cells are deposited inside droplets from the dispenser the droplets are held in place by the cross-linking solution. This allows for the printing of complex structures at high resolutions. In addition, our bioprinter has the capability to print different types of cells in the same sample to create biomimetic in vitro tissues. Ongoing printing projects include the fabrication of skin.