Site card
Laser bioprinting laboratory
Where:
Laser Centre
Ubicación:
90A.00.017.0, Centro Láser
Typology:
Infraestructura Científica
Manager: Sara Lauzurica
Email:
The laser bioprinting laboratory has a blister-actuated laser-induced forward transfer (BA-LIFT) system, based on in-house technology, which includes a CryLaS 355 nm laser (in ns), a vision system (including a fluorescence module) for identifying and selecting cells and an automated positioning system. It is capable of performing BA-LIFT 2D and 3D printing processes with micrometric precision. The equipment is installed in a cell culture laboratory which includes a Nuaire NU543600E biosafety ventilation system, a Thermo Scientific Sorvall ST8 centrifuge and a Thermo Scientific MIDI 40 incubator, as well as other smaller pieces of equipment. The laboratory also has a Zeiss Axio Observer inverted fluorescence microscope with Z-motion and motorised slide in the X and Y planes, a bright-field illumination system and a fluorescence illumination system with various channels.
Health, bioengineering, biomedicine, tissue engineering, additive manufacturing, regenerative medicine, cell culture, cell isolation, single cell.
The laboratory is a pioneer in using the BA-LIFT technique to print materials for tissue engineering and, fundamentally, extremely high-viability (close to 100%) cellular material. The inclusion of a vision and fluorescence module in the system enables on-demand cell selection, including the isolation and printing of a single cell, with the cell being completely protected from the laser beam. The design of the equipment makes it possible to print on a great variety of objects, from flat functionalised substrates to standard culture plates. This technology is completely disruptive and complements and, at times, competes advantageously with extrusion and ink-jet printing technologies.
The system has been used in various biomedical projects to develop in vitro immune response models, improve tissue models and isolate single cells in different biomedical fields.
The laser bioprinting laboratory, apart from being the only one in Spain, benefits from being housed in UPM¿s Laser Centre, with access to the rest of its infrastructure, particularly the Laser Micro- and Nano-manufacturing Service and the Laser Additive/Subtractive Manufacturing Laboratory, which increases the options for designing and carrying out experiments in the field of living tissue engineering.
The technology developed in the laboratory ¿ and the activity associated with it ¿ is directly related to cutting-edge fields with a huge technological and social impact, such as the area of tissue engineering in regenerative medicine, cell selection and isolation for biomedicine and translational medicine, and the development of techniques for manufacturing in vitro biological models and organoids. Moreover, the technique used is state-of-the-art in the field of additive manufacturing applied to biomedicine and is one of the techniques, falling under the heading of digital photonics production, which are considered optimal for today's and tomorrow's digital industry (Industry 4.0).
