MICROFLUIDIC ENABLED RAPID BIOPRINTING OF HYDROGEL mu FIBER BASED POROUS CONSTRUCTS

A rapid and high-resolution bioprinter based on a capillary coaxial microfluidic printer head and vacuum substrate, was conceived and built up in this work. We demonstrate the printing of porous (400 mu m pitch) 3D bio-scaffolds made from calcium alginate microfibers with a printing resolution i.e. fiber diameter) of ca. 150 microns, at a speed of 40 mm/s, which is approximately 10x faster than existing systems with comparable resolution.