Biofabrication: A Guide to Technology and Terminology

Abstract

Biofabrication holds the potential to generate constructs that more closely recapitulate the complexity and heterogeneity of tissues and organs than do currently available regenerative medicine therapies. Such constructs can be applied for tissue regeneration or as in vitro 3D models. Biofabrication is maturing and growing, and scientists with different backgrounds are joining this field, underscoring the need for unity regarding the use of terminology. We therefore believe that there is a compelling need to clarify the relationship between the different concepts, technologies, and descriptions of biofabrication that are often used interchangeably or inconsistently in the current literature. Our objective is to provide a guide to the terminology for different technologies in the field which may serve as a reference for the biofabrication community.

Processing methods for making porous bioactive glass‐based scaffolds—A state‐of‐the‐art review

“…148 Based on the definition, biofabrication refers to "the automated generation of biologically functional products with the structural organization from living cells, bioactive molecules, biomaterials, cell aggregates such as microtissues, or hybrid cell-material constructs, through bioprinting or bioassembly and subsequent tissue maturation processes." 148 Based on the definition, biofabrication refers to "the automated generation of biologically functional products with the structural organization from living cells, bioactive molecules, biomaterials, cell aggregates such as microtissues, or hybrid cell-material constructs, through bioprinting or bioassembly and subsequent tissue maturation processes."…”

Additive Manufacturing of Precision Biomaterials

“…In both approaches, material voxels are formed during the production process that in the final state comprise the desired 3D object. The spatial‐resolution to time‐for‐manufacturing (RTM) ratio was developed as a metric to compare the efficiency of different AM techniques (Equation ), in which the resolution of the formed construct is scaled by the time required for fabrication where R refers to the best spatial resolution enabled by the technology as calculated as the inverse of the minimum feature dimension, d ; and P is the delivery rate as calculated as the volume, V , assembled per unit time, t . The RTM is expressed with units of m 2 min −1 ( Table 1 ).…”

Emerging Trends in Information‐Driven Engineering of Complex Biological Systems

“…[154] These methods are based on the principle of bathing a photopolymerizable resin with light at a specific location to generate a CAD structure. [144,154] 2PP relies on a photoinitiator that simultaneously absorbs two near-infrared photons to generate free radicals for initiating polymerization within a monomer reservoir, enabling unprecedented lateral resolutions of ≈100 nm. [144,154] 2PP relies on a photoinitiator that simultaneously absorbs two near-infrared photons to generate free radicals for initiating polymerization within a monomer reservoir, enabling unprecedented lateral resolutions of ≈100 nm.…”

“…[144] This is typically achieved via droplet-or extrusion-based printing. Modern approaches allow for selective deposition of bioinks containing cells or cell aggregates in a process referred to as "bioprinting."…”