Magnetic Levitation Aids 3D Bioprinting

Florida-based bio science firm Rainbow Biosciences recently stated that, in partnership with Nano3D Biosciences, it has developed the world’s first commercially available 3D bioprinting system built specifically for high volume, rapid drug screening.

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.”

With an eye toward the pharmaceutical market, Rainbow’s CEO Kimberley Palmer believes the BiO Assay could soon be integrated into the earliest phases of the drug development process. With a tool like the BiO Assay companies could determine whether a compound will adversely react to human tissues and cut off expensive research if it’s wandering toward a dead end.  What’s more, Palmer also believes future evolutions of the BiO Assay will push the medical field into new territories: “We believe that magnetic 3D bioprinting could be the future of regenerative medicine and organogenesis.”

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