Blanks for bioengineered tissues – at the speed of sound
DOPsL technology allows you to print complex 3D nanostructures in seconds
"Computer Review" (based on the materials of the University of California, San Diego: Nanoengineers can print 3D microstructures in mere seconds – VM).
Engineers at the University of California at San Diego have developed an innovative technology that allows you to quickly create three-dimensional microscopic structures from biocompatible hydrogels.
In the very near future, this technique will allow us to improve systems for the growth and study of cells, including stem cells. In the longer term, this invention, according to its authors, can be used in regenerative medicine for printing biological tissues.
As reported in the journal Advanced Materials (Zhang et al., Rapid Fabrication of Complex 3D Extracellular Microenvironments by Dynamic Optical Projection Stereolithography, publicly available – VM), the technology, called dynamic, optical, projection stereolithography (dynamic optical projection stereolithography, DOPsL), allows you to print volumetric micro- and nanoobjects of complex shape with a detailed internal structure, such as blood vessels. To obtain similar objects using other 3D printing methods, for example, two-photon photopolymerization, it takes several hours, but here it takes a few seconds.
The new biofabrication technology is based on a computer projection system with precisely controlled micro-mirrors that concentrate light at a selected point of a solution containing photosensitive biopolymers and cells. This initiates the polymerization process, in which the object is constructed from successively solidifying flat layers of material.
Image Credit: Biomedical Nanotechnology Laboratory, Chen Research Group,
UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering – VM.
This achievement was one of the results of a four-year research program implemented on the basis of a $1.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.
In March, the Obama administration announced the investment of a billion dollars in advanced manufacturing technologies, including the creation of an organization for the development of 3D printing, the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute with a federal budget of $ 30 million.
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