Cell-based workflows
The miniaturization of cell-based workflows, such as cell culture, cell-based assay and screening applications require an automation platform with a highly reproducible dispensing of living cells. BioFluidix dispensing technologies ensure high survival rates, normal proliferation behaviour and proper cell differentiation.
Miniaturized cell culture
Increase throughput and create comparable results by standardization in your cell culture.
In vitro cell culture studies help to understand the cellular physiology in an artificial environment. Maintaining cells outside of living tissue require carefully controlled physio-chemical conditions by adding essential nutrients.
BioFluidix dispensing technologies help to miniaturize your experimental setup by adding ultra low-volumes of growth factors and other essential nutrients enabling higher throughput of co-culture experiments in dense plate formats.
3D cell culture
Print cells in low or high densities in all plate formats to create cell spheroids for further investigations.
Cell culture is the major technique in cellular and molecular biology to investigate the biochemistry and physiology of cells (e.g. metabolic studies, cell junction interaction studies, stem cell proliferation and differentiation), the effects of drugs on cells, drug screening and development or the study of the course of a disease in basic research.
3D tissue models
Print droplets containing a low or high number to generate 3D tissue models.
Bioprinted tissue mimics natural environment for applied studies in more controlled conditions. Improve cell survival and print on filament layers or bioinks to investigate cell-cell interactions in diseased tissue or perform screening experiments for drug discovery studies.
Co-culture of stem cells
Automated cell printing increases the consistency by reducing the number of variables in cell culture experiments.
The PipeJet® is ideal for dispensing different cell densities encapsulated in nanoliter droplets. Achieve excellent dispensing results with a high survival rate of up to 97 % by a gentle treatment of cells during dispensing. Adjust the transferred energy of the actuation mechanism to the dispensing tip to reduce the shear stress and print spheroids in all cell culture dishes or glass slides to cultivate cells.
Tissue engineering
Deposit cells in predefined patterns to engineer functional tissue.
Realize tissue-engineered biological structures for human studies or transplantation experiments. The high resolution and printing speed, combined with a high cell viability, allows for printing polymer or cell droplets in any shape.
Relevant literature
Active nutrient supply and waste product removal are key requirements for the fabrication of long‐term viable and functional tissue constructs of considerable size. This work aims to contribute to the fabrication of artificial perfusable networks with a bioprinting process, based on drop‐on‐demand (DoD) printing of primary endothelial cell (EC) suspension bioink.
Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) represent a very important cell source in the field of regenerative medicine and for bone and cartilage tissue engineering applications. Three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting has the potential to improve the classical tissue engineering concept as this technique allows the printing of cells with high spatial control of cell allocation within a 3D construct. In this study, we systematically compared different hydrogel blends for 3D bioprinting of MSCs by testing their cytocompatibility, ability to support osteogenic differentiation and their mechanical properties.
In tissue engineering applications, vascularization can be accomplished by coimplantation of tissue forming cells and endothelial cells (ECs), whereby the latter are able to form functional blood vessels. The use of three‐dimensional (3D) bioprinting technologies has the potential to improve the classical tissue engineering approach because these will allow the generation of scaffolds with high spatial control of endothelial cell allocation. This study focuses on a side by side comparison of popular commercially available bioprinting hydrogels (Matrigel, fibrin, collagen, gelatin, agarose, Pluronic F‐127, alginate, and alginate/gelatin) in the context of their physicochemical parameters, their swelling/degradation characteristics, their biological effects on vasculogenesis‐related EC parameters and their printability.
Contact-Free Dispensing of Living Cells in Nanoliter Droplets
We present a novel method for automated dispensing of living cells in nanoliter range droplets using a disposable pipette tip combined with an elastic polymer tube. After introduction of an unmetered suspension of cells into a reservoir connected to the pipette tip, a tuneable volume of 10 - 80 nL of cells suspension is issued in a non-contact procedure. Droplet ejection is enabled by a piezostack driven piston squeezing the tube at a defined position. We achieve a reproducibility of the printed cell culture medium volumes better than 5% and survival rate of the cells of 97% directly after dispensing. In addition we demonstrated good culturability and cell differentiation in order to consider potential long term effects of the dispensing process that could harness the cells.