3D bioprinting is a recent innovation that has the capacity to dramatically change regenerative medical research. It allows for the precise deposition of biomaterials in a 3-dimensional and spatially defined organization. This is not only far more replicative of native biosystems such as tissues or organs, making for much more dynamic and accurate in vitro models, but also allows for carefully and specifically engineered combinations of materials that can begin to replicate the tissues and organs themselves in vivo. This represents a profound change in the research paradigm for most areas of medical research. The 3D-Discovery from regenHU is a 3D bioprinter with the capacity to create bioconstructs from multivariate materials. This machine can precisely deposit up to four different material mixtures concurrently. Compatible materials can be a of a wide variety of substances, such as cell mixtures, extra cellular matrices, and signaling molecules, or inert biocompatible substances such as plastics that can form a structure for which the biologics can take form. The variety of possible combinations in creating 3D bioconstructs for study is primarily limited by the imagination of the investigator, and not the instrument. Vascularized patches for wound repair, in vitro glomeruli and alveoli, neuroinjury therapies, and osteogenic studies are but a few of the areas for study where research progress has been limited by a lack of suitable 3- dimensional materials. The 3D-Discovery will allow Roudebush researchers and their collaborators to creatively ask questions that have previously been limited by technical feasibility. This will dramatically expand the fundability of studies and substantially impact patient care by investigating old challenges in a new, biologically relevant, 3-dimensional context.
Recently, engineering advances have evolved the field of 3D bioprinting to a point where substances can be precisely deposited in relation to other substances within a tolerance of 10um. This advance, coupled with the concurrent development of biocompatible matrix materials, now makes it possible to create engineered biologic constructs to meticulous tolerances. The 3D-Discovery from regenHU is a 3D bioprinter with the capacity to create bioconstructs from multivariate materials. This machine can precisely deposit up to 4 different material mixtures concurrently. These materials can be cells, extra cellular matrices, signaling molecules, ions in solution, to name a small number of possibilities. Further, the printer is capable of printing these and other substances in a material density gradient of varying stiffness. This allows the replication of simple tissue types, or the precise and complex design of previously impossible in vitro experiments.
