Biofabrication: an overview of the approaches used for printing of living cells

The development of cell printing is vital for establishing biofabrication approaches as clinically relevant tools. Achieving this requires bio-inks which must not only be easily printable, but also allow controllable and reproducible printing of cells. This review outlines the general principles and current progress and compares the advantages and challenges for the most widely used biofabrication techniques for printing cells: extrusion, laser, microvalve, inkjet and tissue fragment printing. It is expected that significant advances in cell printing will result from synergistic combinations of these techniques and lead to optimised resolution, throughput and the overall complexity of printed constructs

A paper-based lateral flow assay for morphine

Morphine was used as a model analyte to examine the possibility of using cellulose, physically modified by papermaking and converting techniques, as a capillary matrix in a lateral flow type of diagnostic assay. This research was directed toward low-cost, disposable, and portable paperbased diagnostics, with the aim of addressing the analytical performance of paper as a substrate in the analysis for drugs of abuse. Antibody Fab fragments were used as sensing molecules, and gold nanoparticle detection was employed. Inkjet printing was used to pattern sensing biomolecules as detection zones on paper. To validate the usefulness of paper as a diagnostic platform, the principle of a direct sandwich assay, based on immunocomplex formation between morphine and the anti-morphine Fab fragment and detection of the formed immunocomplex by another Fab fragment, was implemented. Results were compared with that achieved by using nitrocellulose as a reference material. Possible interfering from the sample matrix on assay quality was investigated with spiked oral fluid samples. Under optimized conditions, a visually assessed limit of detection for the sandwich assay was 1 ng/mL, indicating that the paper-based test devices developed in this work can perform screening for drugs of abuse and can fulfill the requirement for a sensitive assay in diagnostically relevant range

3D bioprinting: an emerging technology full of opportunities and challenges

Three-dimensional (3D) printing is a novel promising technology based on 3D imaging and layer-by-layer additive fabrication. It has a profound influence on all aspects of our lives and is playing an increasing important role in many areas including engineering, manufacturing, art, education and medicine. “3D bioprinting” has been put forward with the technical progress in 3D printing and might be a possible way to solve the serious problem of human organ shortage in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Many research groups flung them into this area and have already made some gratifying achievements. However, it is a long way to fabricate a live organ. Many elements lead to the limitation of 3D bioprinting. This review introduces the background and development history of 3D bioprinting, compares different approaches of 3D bioprinting and illustrates the key factors of the printing process. Meanwhile, this review also points out existing challenges of 3D bioprinting and has a great prospect. Some points proposed in this review might be served as reference for the research of this field