Highly printable hydrogel for bioprinting

Technology Overview

Current hydrogel materials are lacking in terms of suitable printability and insufficient mechanical stability after printing. This novel hydrogel has two distinct features which are high printability and high mechanical strength. By using the new hydrogel as bio-ink in this invention, complex biological structures for biomedical applications can be designed and printed. Moreover, after cross-linking, this novel hydrogel has sufficient mechanical strength to be handled and can be placed in a bioreactor for further tissue maturation in vitro before implantation.

Technology Features & Specifications

This invention has various features, including:

  • High performance in printability for complex structures
  • High mechanical strength for in vitro and tissue model applications
  • Easy to clean only by changing temperature (before crosslinking)
  • The product can be easily scaled up for large volume production. Since reaction schemes are provided, scale up is not a problem.

Potential Applications

This high performance hydrogel composite is suitable for complex 3D bioprinting. The 3D bioprinted part is very useful for tissue engineering and related biomedical applications such as toxicity testing and drug delivery. Lastly, the high performance hydrogel will allow us the print or guide the blood vessels network structure which will be a possible alternative solution for vascularization issue.

Market Trends and Opportunities

According to Technavio, the global market for 3D bio-printing is set to have a CAGR of more than 25% by 2021. This is driven by an increasing demand for 3D bioprinting in many organisations, universities and laboratories, that are using the technology to develop new applications in the health industries such as medical implants or bio-sensing platforms.

Customer Benefits

  • Easy to synthesize and modify, most of the equipment can be found in normal chemical labs & plants
  • Easily scalable
  • Highly biocompatible (both reactants are FDA approved)
  • Versatile, can be used with most extrusion based bioprinters
  • Highly printable and easy for optimization
  • Longer degradation time of 2-4 weeks, allowing many in vitro experiments to be done