Bioprinting · Extrusion · FRESH · 2021 · Scientific Reports
An open source extrusion bioprinter based on the E3D motion system and tool changer to enable FRESH and multimaterial bioprinting
Bioprinting is increasingly used to create complex tissue constructs for an array of research applications, and there are also increasing efforts to print tissues for transplantation. Bioprinting may also prove valuable in the context of drug screening for personalized medicine for treatment of diseases such as cancer.
Performance the paper reports
1 of 5- Motion—Motion accuracy: not reported
- Volume—Volumetric accuracy: not reported
- Viability90%Cell viability: reported
- Unattended—Unattended operation: not reported
- Standard—Standard compliance: not reported
- Cell viability90%
We found viability to be similar between overnight (~ 20 h) and 1 week cultures, which was on average 90% (Fig. 3g).
How hard this is to adopt
3.1 of 5, higher is easierEach score is shown against the range the other 59 builds actually occupy, because no criterion uses the full 1–5 scale. These describe how reproducible the build is, not how good the science is.
Resolution
3/1–5Smallest feature/positioning evidence about 100 µm.
Throughput
4/2–5Evidence of parallel, plate-scale, multi-head, or unattended operation.
Parts sourcing
3/2–4Mix of common parts and custom/printed components.
Skill needed
3/2–4Multiple technical skills appear required.
Facilities needed
3/2–4Requires accessible but nontrivial lab/maker equipment.
Documentation
2/2–5provides partial build information but missing critical details required for reproduction
Validation effort
4/2–4Validation includes standards, benchmarking, replicates, or multi-condition tests.
Cycle time
not scoredN/A
2 further criteria are recorded but not shown
- Application Level — scored 4 (75% of records share one value), so it cannot separate one build from another.
- Build Time (scored for only 6 of 60 records), so it cannot separate one build from another.
Both remain in the published dataset.
Have you built this?
Report what it took, including attempts that stalled. A failed build tells the next laboratory what the documentation leaves out.
Know what this record is missing?
The index has no cost, licence on the design files or link to the design files for this build. If you are an author or have built it, you know; a GitHub issue pre-filled with this record takes a minute.
Record metadata
Publication data
Matched by title · retrieved 2026-07-21
Abstract
Bioprinting is increasingly used to create complex tissue constructs for an array of research applications, and there are also increasing efforts to print tissues for transplantation. Bioprinting may also prove valuable in the context of drug screening for personalized medicine for treatment of diseases such as cancer. However, the rapidly expanding bioprinting research field is currently limited by access to bioprinters. To increase the availability of bioprinting technologies we present here an open source extrusion bioprinter based on the E3D motion system and tool changer to enable high-resolution multimaterial bioprinting. As proof of concept, the bioprinter is used to create collagen constructs using freeform reversible embedding of suspended hydrogels (FRESH) methodology, as well as multimaterial constructs composed of distinct sections of laminin and collagen. Data is presented demonstrating that the bioprinted constructs support growth of cells either seeded onto printed constructs or included in the bioink prior to bioprinting. This open source bioprinter is easily adapted for different bioprinting applications, and additional tools can be incorporated to increase the capabilities of the system.
Bibliographic details
Access and metrics
Topics and keywords
Funding
- Uppsala University
- VINNOVA · 2019-00029
- Cancerfonden · 20 1285 PjF 01 H
- Uppsala University
Perspective and practical signals
Why it matters
Open-source multimaterial/FRESH-enabling design; very aligned with ‘Replistruder-like’ tooling.
Limitations
no commercial benchmarking