The method used to make them is called hydrogel stamping

Dec 30, 2013 09:51 GMT  ·  By

Medicine is one of the fields where 3D printing is expected to do the most good, and for all the skeptics out there, we have real proof: 3D printed cells. A team of Penn State engineers in bio-medicine came up with them.

The researchers created a technique by which cheap, artificial cells can be made via microprinting. These cells aren't meant for transplants or implants, but they can be used just fine for allowing man to understand life at a cellular level.

The 3D printing process used here is called hydrogel stamping, whereby liquid hydrogel is deposited in dots of a lipid and protein mixture, onto a glass substrate.

An alternative current is then applied to the substrate, causing the lipid and protein mixture to become electrified, leading to tiny bubbles that organize themselves into an artificial cell.

Biosensing, biomaterials and biotechnology applications are many, allowing biomedicine experts to possibly discover new treatment methods, like organ grafting maybe. That's still far off in the future though.

One of the team leaders, Sheereen Majd, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering, considers these cells a much better object of examination, because natural cells are so complex that it's difficult to study them, especially for new undergrads.

"These giant proteoliposomes closely mimic cellular membranes," Majd said. "They're excellent model systems for studying processes that happen at the surface of cells such as the molecular events that occur when pathogens and drugs enter cells."

They still don't understand what happens when the cells are agitated via electrical fields though. Or rather they don't understand why it happens.

"The physical phenomenon of exactly how the AC field creates the bubbles is not yet understood," says Majd.

"The AC electric field produces agitation that creates the tiny bubbles that merge to form the cells. This process is called electroformation. The beauty of this method is that a lot of labs already use liposomes and electroformation. Traditionally, they do not have proteins attached."