Design and Fabrication of 3D Bioprinter

3D Bioprinting is an emerging field in which a 3D living cell-Laden structure that is compatible with a living body is printed. This process gives patients a fast recovery in case of organs and tissues damage. Bioinks and Hydrogels are used in this AM. There are many techniques to print hydroge

Project Title

Design and Fabrication of 3D Bioprinter

Project Area of Specialization

Mechatronics Engineering

Project Summary

3D Bioprinting is an emerging field in which a 3D living cell-Laden structure that is compatible with a living body is printed. This process gives patients a fast recovery in case of organs and tissues damage. Bioinks and Hydrogels are used in this AM. There are many techniques to print hydrogels and bioinks that provide an accurate and precise 3D living cell structure. The 3D printed hydrogels provide mechanical support and fast recovery of the damaged tissues, organs and also bones.
The Industrial Bioprinters are too expensive (10k Dollars minimum) for local developing biomedical engineering sectors, so there is a need to design low-cost 3D bioprinting machines for the production of scaffolds and cell-laden structures.

Project Objectives

The goal is to design and fabricate a low-cost bio-printing platform able to deliver cell-laden fluids with spatial accuracy along the X, Y and Z axes of 0.1 mm.

Project Implementation Method

Design Phase:

1. A Normal 3D printer (Ender 3, Prusa I3, Anet A8 etc) will be modified to print biomaterial.
2. A controlled Heating system will be adopted due to heat-sensitive biomaterials (bioinks and hydrogels), in designing Bio-Extruder.
3. Pneumatic system will be adopted to expel Bioink from the Bio-Extruder.
4. Guided linear rails (MGN12H) with NEMA 17 stepper motors will be used instead of smooth guiding rods for high accuracy and minimum sound and vibrations.
5. 3D digital data (CAD) from a personal interfaced pc will be fabricated.
6. The printer will be portable.
7. Movement in X, Y and Z directions will be controlled using Arduino mega and Ramps 1.4 motherboard burning open-source Arduino algorithms.

Implementation Phase:

1. Biostructure will be designed in Solidworks and then generate the stl file and g-code.
2. G-code will be inserted via SD card in Motherboard.
3. 3d printed scaffold will be carried according to the provided manual of Bioink.
4. We will use the required measuring tool to check the accuracy of the 3D printed scaffold.

Testing phase:

Microscopic testing will be done to make sure the printed quality of the scaffold i.e. The distribution of the cells, the viability of the cells, or to check the percentage of living and dead cells (The testing procedure is confirmed by our supervisor).

Evaluation phase:

3d printed bio-structure will be evaluated relative to the standard industrial bioprinters, the accuracy and microscopic details of the printed bio-structure.

Benefits of the Project

Bioprinting could replace organ donors

Using bioprinting technology, scientists are developing techniques to print living organs like livers, kidneys, lungs, and any other organ our body needs. It could reduce or completely eliminate the organ transplant shortage, giving everyone an equal second chance

Bioprinting could prevent cell rejection

Printing human tissue that functions naturally is not an easy task, but chances of finding a donor that shares compatible tissue cells are not very high. Incompatibility can activate the immune system to attack the body if a foreign cell is discovered. This means that organ transplants can be tricky. If the body rejects the new addition, complications may arise and the patent will either need a new transplant (which means another long and painful waiting time) or live on immunosuppressants for the rest of their lives. But with 3D bioprinting, the cultured cells may be taken from the patient himself. This would ensure that the transplant won’t be rejected by the body after the operation.

Bioprinting could replace animals in testing labs

In US labs alone, more than 100 million animals suffer and eventually die as a result of testing. We have heard of so many scandals and horror stories escaping the labs of cosmetic companies, but recently we've finally had a success story; L’Oreal became the first cosmetics company to test its product on bioprinted tissue. As tissue production develops and becomes more available, every cosmetics company could have an alternative method on hand, i.e. using printed objects for product testing where no animal ever suffers again.

Bioprinting can replace volunteers in drug testing labs

Bioprinted tissue may one day replace human volunteers from drug testing facilities, reducing the risks that such testing poses to volunteer health and safety.  In this way, 3D bioprinting could become the safest and most practical way of testing newly developed drugs before rolling them out to the mass markets.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

The bioprinter consists of three sub-assemblies: a base unit, a gantry, and a shuttle component. The platform utilizes four stepper motors to position along three axes and a fifth stepper motor actuating a pump. The shuttle and gantry are each driven along their respective horizontal axes via a separate single stepper motor, while two coupled stepper motors are used to control location along the vertical axis. The shuttle configuration allows for a 5 mL or 2 mL syringe to be extruded within a work envelope of 180 mm x 160 mm x 120 mm (X, Y, Z). The shuttle can easily be reconfigured to accommodate larger volume syringes. Positional fidelity will be established with callipers possessing a resolution to the nearest hundredth millimeter. The motors associated with the X-axis and Y-axis will be calibrated to approximately 0.02 mm per motor impulse. The Z-axis has a theoretical step distance of ~51 nm, generating a 0.04% error over a 10 mm travel distance. The A-axis, or pump motor, has an impulse distance of 0.001 mm. The volume extruded by a single impulse will be dictated by the diameter of the syringe used. With a 5 mL syringe possessing an inner diameter of 12.35 mm, the pump pushes as little as 0.119 ?L. While the Z-axis is tuned to the highest resolution settings for the motor driver, the X, Y and A axes could obtain higher or lower resolution via physical switches on the motor drivers.

Final Deliverable of the Project

Hardware System

Core Industry

Education

Other Industries

Medical , Health

Core Technology

3D/4D Printing

Other Technologies

Sustainable Development Goals

Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

Required Resources

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