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Updated: Oct 19, 2025

Bridging the Bio-Electronic Interface with Biofabrication
Published on: June 6, 2012
What can biofabrication do for space and what can space do for biofabrication?
Lorenzo Moroni1, Kevin Tabury2, Hilde Stenuit3
1MERLN Institute for Technology-Inspired Regenerative Medicine, Department of Complex Tissue Regeneration, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Abstract:
Biofabrication in space is one of the novel promising and prospective research directions in the rapidly emerging field of space STEM. There are several advantages of biofabrication in space. Under microgravity, it is possible to engineer constructs using more fluidic channels and thus more biocompatible bioinks. Microgravity enables biofabrication of tissue and organ constructs of more complex geometries, thus facilitating novel scaffold-, label-, and nozzle-free technologies based on multi-levitation principles. However, when exposed to microgravity and cosmic radiation, biofabricated tissues could be used to study pathophysiological phenomena that will be useful on Earth and for deep space manned missions. Here, we provide leading concepts about the potential mutual benefits of the application of biofabrication technologies in space.

