Bioprinting

Bioprinting is the use of three-dimensional printing techniques to build tissue-like structures by depositing living cells, growth factors and biomaterials, together called bioinks, layer by layer into a shape usually derived from a patient's own CT or MRI scan. The technique traces its practical origin to work at Boston Children's Hospital, where researchers built replacement urinary bladders for seven patients by hand, layering a patient's own cells onto a scaffold and letting them grow before implantation; the surgeon Anthony Atala, who led that work, subsequently pursued automating the same layering process, which became bioprinting. A completed bioprinted construct is matured first in an incubator and then in a bioreactor, whose mechanical and chemical stimulation helps the tissue develop blood vessels and survive transplantation, and by 2022 researchers had reported the first clinical trial of a bioprinted transplant, an external ear built from a patient's own cells to treat the congenital condition microtia.