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Updated: Jun 28, 2025
Printing Thermoresponsive Reverse Molds for the Creation of Patterned Two-component Hydrogels for 3D Cell Culture
Published on: July 10, 2013
Flexible material formulations for 3D printing of ordered porous beds with applications in bioprocess engineering
Simone Dimartino1, Giuseppe Rafael Galindo-Rodriguez2, Ursula Simon2
1Institute for Bioengineering, School of Engineering, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH9 3DW, UK. simone.dimartino@ed.ac.uk.
Background:
3D printing is revolutioning many industrial sectors and has the potential to enhance also the biotechnology and bioprocessing fields. Here, we propose a new flexible material formulation to 3D print support matrices with complex, perfectly ordered morphology and with tuneable properties to suit a range of applications in bioprocess engineering.
Findings:
Supports were fabricated using functional monomers as the key ingredients, enabling matrices with bespoke chemistry, such as charged groups, chemical moieties for further functionalization, and hydrophobic/hydrophilic groups. Other ingredients, e.g. crosslinkers and porogens, can be employed to fabricate supports with diverse characteristics of their porous network, providing an opportunity to further regulate the mechanical and mass transfer properties of the supports. Through this approach, we fabricated and demonstrated the operation of Schoen gyroid columns with (I) positive and negative charges for ion exchange chromatography, (II) enzyme bioreactors with immobilized trypsin to catalyse hydrolysis, and (III) bacterial biofilm bioreactors for fuel desulphurization.
Conclusions:
This study demonstrates a simple, cost-effective, and flexible fabrication of customized 3D printed supports for different biotechnology and bioengineering applications.
