Jet-based 3D printing of biological constructs

Organ printing is the layer-by-layer bottom-up fabrication of complex cellular organization of native tissues or organs by bioprinting multiple cell types and other biomaterials at designated positions. The rising success rate of transplants has resulted in a critical need for more tissues and organs. Approximately 95,000 people are on the waiting list for new organs in the U.S. alone, and some die every day waiting for transplants. Integrated with a better understanding of multicellular self-assembly, bioprinting-based organ printing provides a promising solution to the problem of organ donor shortage. While some major challenges in bioprinting are biological such as endothelialization, vascularization, and accelerated tissue maturation, there is a critical need to create scale-up technologies for the robotic fabrication of hollow three-dimensional (3D) vascular constructs for use as the first step toward organ printing. Both inkjet- and laser- based bioprinting technologies have been explored as enabling bioprinting technologies, and complex constructs such as 3D vascular and vascular-like constructs have been successfully fabricated.