Microfluidic bioprinting of heterogeneous 3D tissue constructs

3D bioprinting is an emerging field that can be described as a robotic additive biofabrication technology that has the potential to build tissues or organs. In general, bioprinting uses a computer controlled printing device to accurately deposit cells and biomaterials into precise architectures with the goal of creating on demand organized multicellular tissue structures and eventually intra-organ vascular networks. The latter, in turn, will promote the host-integration of the engineered tissue/organ in situ once implanted. Existing biofabrication techniques still lay behind this goal. Here, we describe a novel microfluidic printing head - integrated within a custom 3D bioprinter - that allows for the deposition of multi-material and/or multi-cellular within a single scaffold by extruding simultaneously different bioinks or by rapidly switching between one bioink and another. The designed bioprinting method effectively moves towards the direction of creating viable tissues and organs for implantation in clinic and research in lab environments.