Super Productive 3D Bioprinter Speeding Drug Development

Another example.  Have now heard many such claims regarding drug development. How many are being used effectively? Here is another. 

Super Productive 3D Bioprinter Could Speed Drug Development

UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering

June 8, 2021

A three-dimensional (3D) bioprinter developed by researchers at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) that can produce large batches of custom biological tissues at record speed could accelerate drug development. The new bioprinting method can produce a tissue sample in just 10 seconds, compared to hours with traditional methods. The researchers designed 3D models of biological structures on a computer, which slices the models into 2D snapshots and transfers them to millions of microscopic-sized mirrors, which are digitally controlled to project patterns of violet light in the form of these snapshots. After the light patterns are shined onto a solution that solidifies upon exposure to light, the structure is printed a layer at a time in a continuous fashion. UCSD’s Shangting You said, “What we are developing here are complex 3D cell culture systems that will more closely mimic actual human tissues, and that can hopefully improve the success rate of drug development.”  ... '

Printing Bone with Living Cells

Considerable idea.   

Scientists Use Novel Ink to 3D-Print 'Bone' With Living Cells,  By University of New South Wales (Australia),  January 27, 2021

  New South Wales Sydney may allow surgeons to use three-dimensional printing to generate bone parts, complete with living cells.

A technology developed by researchers at Australia's University of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney enables three-dimensional (3D) printers to print bone-like structures, complete with living cells.

The researchers developed an ink comprised of calcium phosphate, and their new technique, called ceramic omnidirectional bioprinting in cell-suspensions (COBICS), allows 3D printing of bone-like structures that harden in minutes when placed in water.

This marks the first time  such structures were created at room temperature without harsh chemicals or radiation, and including living cells.

UNSW's Kristopher Kilian said, "We can go directly into the bone where there are cells, blood vessels, and fat, and print a bone-like structure that already contains living cells, right in that area. There are currently no technologies that can do that directly."

From University of New South Wales (Australia) 

KFC Testing 3D BioPrinted Chicken

One of those things that didn't even possible not too long ago.  Now being tested by a major player.

KFC to 3D Print Chicken Using Lab-Grown 'Meat of the Future'
The fast food chain wants to develop the world's first laboratory-produced chicken nuggets.

Stephanie Mlot
"Our experiment in testing 3D bioprinting technology to create chicken products can also help address several looming global problems," Raisa Polyakova, general manager of KFC Russia, said in a statement. "We are glad to contribute to its development and are working to make it available to thousands of people in Russia and, if possible, around the world."

A final product should be ready for testing this fall in Moscow, where folks are working on additive bioprinting technology that uses chicken cells and plant material to reproduce the taste and texture of meat, "almost" without involving animals. Biomeat has the same microelements of the original product without any additives (typically used in the production, processing, treatment, packaging, transportation, or storage), making it cleaner and more ethical, considering the process does not harm animals.  ... " 

Bioprinting the Very Small

Impressive capability, with many possible healthcare applications.

Printing Tiny, High-Precision Objects in Seconds
EPFL (Switzerland)
Sarah Perrin
February 13, 2020

Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) have developed a high-precision technique for three-dimensionally (3D) printing small, soft objects in seconds. The method employs the principles of tomography, in which models of objects are constructed from surface scans. The printer transmits a laser through a translucent gel that is either organic or liquid plastic, hardening the material as algorithms calculate the areas the laser targets, the beam's angles, and intensity. The system currently produces 2cm structures with 80-micrometer precision, and new devices should be able to print larger objects, potentially up to 15 centimeters. The researchers partnered with a surgeon to test 3D-printed arteries fabricated with this method, and the technology could potentially have bioprinting applications due to its ability to print solid objects of different textures. ... "

Explaining Bioprinting

From MIT's 'Audio Explaining' feature, well done.   Full audio at the link below.

Audio explainer: Exploring the fields of bioprinting and biohybrid materials  MIT News Office

The following audio excerpt and transcript features an explanation of bioprinting and biohybrid materials by MIT graduate student Rachel Smith of the Mediated Matter Group at the Media Lab. It corresponds with this MIT News article on those subjects.

HOST: 3-D printing is everywhere. From bike parts to fashion, to novelty key chains, to tools and light fixtures. We often see it employed to accelerate production processes and prototyping, but what about the biological potential of printing? You may have heard terms such as bioprinting, bioinks or biomaterials, but what exactly are they? We’ve asked Rachel Smith, a graduate student of the Mediated Matter Group at the MIT Media Lab to explain what bioprinting is and what biohybrid materials are, and to give us some idea of where these fields of study are going.

RACHEL SMITH: Bioprinting and biohybrid materials: though these terms overlap, it is a bit like comparing apples to oranges. Bioprinting is a type of material fabrication process, whereas biohybrid materials are one type of material resulting from fabrication processes like this. Both bioprinting and biohybrid materials involve the use of living cells.

First, lets think about living cells as fabrication materials: something that you could integrate, like other components, into human-made engineering processes and products.

Many cells can naturally replicate, differentiate, and self-organize, and over time, we have also engineered ways to guide their movement, their growth, and the products that they excrete and consume. Thus, you can think of living cells as sensing and computing machines that are extremely sensitive to their surroundings, but we can control and ‘code’ their responses. As a material, they have uniquely responsive and programmable properties.

Bioprinting is the process of printing with living cells. You can include living cells in the ink of a 2D printer, or in the build material for a 3D printer to create tissue-like structures. Currently, 3D-bioprinting can be used to print tissues and organs with the appropriate biological and mechanical properties as the real thing to help with a wide variety of medicinal research. In some cases, researchers print with porous materials that encourage cells to migrate inside and begin to ossify into bone. Another exciting example is 3D printing cardiac cells, which can begin to contract in sync to regenerate mechanical functions of the heart.  ... "

3D Printing 'Living' Materials

Implications here fascinating, more details at the link.

3D Printing Technique Produces 'Living' 4D Materials
UNSW Newsroom
By Caroline Tang
November 19, 2019

Researchers at Australia's University of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney and New Zealand's University of Auckland have combined three-dimensional (3D) and four-dimensional (4D) printing with a chemical process designed to create polymers to generate "living" resin. The researchers' controlled polymerization technique utilizes visible light to produce an environmentally friendly plastic or polymer. UNSW's Cerille Boyer said, "Our new method ... allows us to control the architecture of the polymers and tune the mechanical properties of the materials prepared by our process ... [and] also gives us access to 4D printing and allows the material to be transformed or functionalized." UNSW's Nathaniel Corrigan added that the system can finely control the 3D-printed material's molecules, so it can reversibly change shape and its chemical/physical properties under certain conditions. The researchers said the technique could be used to generate self-repairing and reusable objects, as well as biomedicines.    .... " 

3D Printing Human Body Parts

3D-Printing Human Body Parts    By Keith Kirkpatrick 



Communications of the ACM, Vol. 60 No. 10, Pages 15-17 

The advent of three-dimensional (3D) printing is already yielding benefits in many fields by improving the speed and efficiency of product development, prototyping, and manufacturing, while also enabling true on-off customization to suit individual needs. While this is certainly a boon for manufacturers, 3D printing holds even greater promise when considering the possibilities for creating body parts or tissues to replace or repair organs or limbs that have worn out, become damaged, or have been lost to due injury or disease.

Indeed, significant ongoing research is being conducted at the university level into the use of 3D printing to create a variety of replacement parts for aspects of the human anatomy. .... "