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Updated: Dec 10, 2025
3D Printing of Biomolecular Models for Research and Pedagogy
Published on: March 13, 2017
3D printing promotes the development of drugs
Xiao Zhu1, Hongjian Li2, Lianfang Huang3
1Guangdong Key Laboratory for Research and Development of Natural Drugs, The Marine Biomedical Research Institute, Guangdong Medical University, Zhanjiang 524023, China; The Marine Biomedical Research Institute of Guangdong Zhanjiang, Zhanjiang 524023, China; The Key Lab of Zhanjiang for R&D Marine Microbial Resources in the Beibu Gulf Rim, Guangdong Medical University, Zhanjiang 524023, China; Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhanjiang), Zhanjiang 524023, China.
Abstract:
3D printing is an emerging field that can be found in medicine, electronics, aviation and other fields. 3D printing, with its personalized and highly customized characteristics, has great potential in the pharmaceutical industry. We were interested in how 3D printing can be used in drug fields. To find out 3D printing's application in drug fields, we collected the literature by combining the keywords "3D printing"/"additive manufacturing" and "drug"/"tablet". We found that 3D printing technology has the following applications in medicine: firstly, it can print pills on demand according to the individual condition of the patient, making the dosage more suitable for each patient's own physical condition; secondly, it can print tablets with specific shape and structure to control the release rate; thirdly, it can precisely control the distribution of cells, extracellular matrix and biomaterials to build organs or organ-on-a-chip for drug testing; finally, it could print loose porous pills to reduce swallowing difficulties, or be used to make transdermal microneedle patches to reduce pain of patients.
