While many bioprinters are currently being developed to serve the ever-growing drug development market, complications surrounding the creation of cellular matrices and the embedding of life sustaining blood vessels have made bioprinters difficult to perfect. Add to those issues the fact that creating a single sample of live, bioprinted tissue can run upwards of $10,000 and you begin to see the awe factor of Rainbow’s recent announcement.
According to Rainbow, their new bioprinter has eliminated these issues through the aid of magnetic levitation. Named the BiO Assay, the new machine “uses biocompatible magnetic nanoparticles to print cells into 3D structures much faster and more affordably than competing bioprinting techs.”
Although Rainbow Biosciences is the first company to develop a commercially viable bioprinter, it won’t be the last. With continued competition in the industry the development of bioprinting could be one of the defining technologies of the next decade, possibly changing the way we view medicine, biology and life itself.
Images Courtesy of Rainbow Biosciences & Nano3D Biosciences