Porcine Schwann cells and neuronal analogue NG108-15 cells were printed using a piezoelectric-inkjet-printer within the range of 70V to 230V, with analysis of viability and quality after printing. Neuronal and glial cell viabilities of >86% and >90% were detected immediately after printing and no correlation between voltage applied and cell viability could be seen. Printed neuronal cells were shown to produce neurites earlier compared to controls, and over several days, produced longer neurites which become most evident by day 7. The number of neurites becomes similar by day 7 also, and cells proliferate with a similar viability to that of non-printed cells (controls). This method of inkjet printing cells provides a technical platform for investigating neuron-glial cell interactions with no significant difference to cell viability than standard cell seeding. Such techniques can be utilized for lab-on-a-chip technologies and to create printed neural networks for neuroscience applications.

-Additive manufacturing, an umbrella term for a number of different manufacturing techniques, has attracted increasing interest recently for a number of reasons, such as the facile customisation of parts, reduced time to manufacture from initial design, and possibilities in distributed manufacturing and structural electronics. Inkjet printing is an additive manufacturing technique that is readily integrated with other manufacturing processes, eminently scalable and used extensively in printed electronics. It therefore presents itself as a good candidate for integration with other additive manufacturing techniques to enable the creation of parts with embedded electronics in a timely and cost effective manner. This review introduces some of the fundamental principles of inkjet printing; such as droplet generation, deposition, phase change and post-deposition processing. Particular focus is given to materials most relevant to incorporating structural electronics and how post-processing of these materials has been able to maintain compatibility with temperature sensitive substrates. Specific obstacles likely to be encountered in such an integration and potential strategies to address them will also be discussed.

This review discusses the use of scaffolds in tissue engineering and summarises the means by which they might be fabricated. The review identifies the main features a scaffold should have, and discusses the progress that has been made towards obtaining these targets. In particular, the review focuses on inkjet printing as a viable production route and discusses why this additive manufacturing technique holds considerable appeal and promise. The article concludes with an overview of the current challenges in this field and reviews the different types of material that can be used for scaffolds.

It has recently been shown that regenerated silk fibroin (RSF) aqueous solution can be printed using an inkjet printer. In this communication, we demonstrate an alternative reactive inkjet printing method that provides control over RSF crystallinity through b-sheet concentration. A biocompatible film has successfully been produced through the alternate printing of RSF aqueous solution and methanol using reactive inkjet printing. Control over the formation of the bsheet structure was achieved by printing different ratios of RSF to methanol and was confirmed using Fourier Transform Infra Red spectroscopy. The biocompatibility of the printed silk scaffold was demonstrated by the growth of fibroblast cells upon its surface.Silk is a versatile, natural material favoured for its mechanical strength, excellent biocompatibility, adaptable biodegradability [1, 2], easy processing [3] and flexible structural modification [4]. Silk has a long history of use [5]; recently, regenerated silk fibroin (RSF) has been used as a building block for the fabrication of biomedical devices [3]. RSF structures are commonly produced with a casting method; however, additive manufacture applications offer a greater control over RSF film surfaces which can be advantageous for controlling cell growth. Current additive manufacture applications are mainly focused on producing individual silk fibres such as electrohydrodynamic printing [6] and electrospinning [7]. Different silk polymorphs, silk I, silk II and silk III, have been observed. Silk I, which is the water-soluble state seen prior to crystallisation, is composed of ahelix and amorphous chains. Silk II contains an extended b-sheet structure and appears after spinning [3]. Silk III assembles at an air (or oil)/water interface [8], but only silk I and silk II are of interest in this work. Water-soluble silk I can be converted to insoluble silk II by exposure to methanol, as reported by Huemmerich et al. [9]. The asymmetrical b-sheet structures of Silk II consist of hydrogen side chains from glycine on one side and methyl side chains from alanine on the other side. The methyl groups interact with hydrogen groups of opposing b-sheets to form

Glioblastomas remain the most lethal primary brain tumors. Natural killer (NK) cell-based therapy is a promising immunotherapeutic strategy in the treatment of glioblastomas, since these cells can select and lyse therapy-resistant glioblastoma stem-like cells (GSLCs). Immunotherapy with super-charged NK cells has a potential as antitumor approach since we found their efficiency to kill patient-derived GSLCs in 2D and 3D models, potentially reversing the immunosuppression also seen in the patients. In addition to their potent cytotoxicity, NK cells secrete IFN-γ, upregulate GSLC surface expression of CD54 and MHC class I and increase sensitivity of GSLCs to chemotherapeutic drugs. Moreover, NK cell localization in peri-vascular regions in glioblastoma tissues and their close contact with GSLCs in tumorospheres suggests their ability to infiltrate glioblastoma tumors and target GSLCs. Due to GSLC heterogeneity and plasticity in regards to their stage of differentiation personalized immunotherapeutic strategies should be designed to effectively target glioblastomas.