Over the past decade, 3D bioprinting has rapidly expanded from a niche technology and in to a versatile platform for fabricating tissues with complex geometries and features ranging from the cellular to organ length scales. Here we will discuss our recent progress in the additive manufacturing of complex structures using hydrogels and various thermoset resins that are otherwise impossible to additively manufacture using alternative approaches. These structures are built by embedding the printed material within a temporary, thermoreversible, and biocompatible support fluid. This process, termed freeform reversible embedding of suspended hydrogels (FRESH), enables additive manufacturing of hydrogels with an elastic modulus less than 500 kPa. FRESH 3D printing also enables fabrication with thermoset and composite resins such as epoxies, acrylates, and siloxanes, and can host a range of polymerization mechanisms depending on the printed material, including ionic crosslinking, enzymes, pH change, heat/light exposure, and time-sensitive gelation approaches. We will demonstrate recent advances towards a range of new applications, including 3D printing of collagen for bioengineering functional tissue constructs and of silicone elastomers for patient-specific, wearable medical devices.

3D printing of liquid and soft materials: Applications from regenerative medicine to wearable sensing

255th National Meeting (2018)

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