GSS EU Science Funding Gateway

“In-situ bio-printing” known as printing cells and biomaterials directly onto or in a patient, or 4D bio-printing, which introduces a “time” variable that allows 3D printed materials to change shape or function when external stimulus is applied, are recent developments facing multiple additional challenges.

Despite some success of 3D bio-printing with thin tissue, thick tissue and complex organs remain a bottleneck because it is difficult to sufficiently mimic their metabolic needs, and the scientific knowledge about their intimate architecture and interplay with other tissues are not sufficiently elucidated. Next to these limitations are a lack of standardised manufacturing protocols and standardised bio-ink formulations with tuneable properties, unstable cellular behaviour, material biocompatibility and printability, etc. Taken together, 3D bio-printing is confronted with several challenges that currently hamper its large-scale deployment.

To overcome these challenges, researchers should work in multidisciplinary teams with engineers, biomedical scientists, cell biologists and medical doctors and proposals should address most of the following activities:

• Design the best bio-printing strategy for at least one type of tissue thanks to a better understanding of the interconnections of the different cell types inside the chosen tissue or organ
• Develop or improve existing equipment able to print bio-constructs with higher resolution in a shorter time using various biomaterials and different cell types
• Cover all steps of the bio-printing suite, including cell collection, cell differentiation and expansion, imaging, modelling, bio-ink formulation, actual bio-printing, nutrient supply, process monitoring and cell-construct delivery at target site
• Scale-up the chosen bio-printing technology to a GMP-conform manufacturing process
• Combine different bio-printing technologies in order to obtain fully functional synthetic constructs of complex tissues or organs.