Bioreactors & Cell Culture · 2023
Enhanced Growth of Bacterial Cells in a Smart 3D Printed Bioreactor
In the last decade, there has been a notable advancement in diverse bioreactor types catering to various applications. However, conventional bioreactors often exhibit bulkiness and high costs, making them less accessible to many researchers and laboratory facilities.
Performance the paper reports
0 of 5- Motion—Motion accuracy: not reported
- Volume—Volumetric accuracy: not reported
- Viability—Cell viability: not reported
- Unattended—Unattended operation: not reported
- Standard—Standard compliance: not reported
The full text was read and states no figure for any of the five.
How hard this is to adopt
3.0 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
not scoredN/A
Throughput
2/2–5Operation appears single-unit or manually constrained.
Parts sourcing
3/2–4Mix of common parts and custom/printed components.
Skill needed
3/2–4Multiple technical skills appear required.
Facilities needed
4/2–4Uses common benchtop/desktop equipment or generic consumables.
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 scoredNo clear speed comparison found
2 further criteria are recorded but not shown
- Application Level — scored 2 (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.
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Publication data
Matched by doi · retrieved 2026-07-21
Abstract
In the last decade, there has been a notable advancement in diverse bioreactor types catering to various applications. However, conventional bioreactors often exhibit bulkiness and high costs, making them less accessible to many researchers and laboratory facilities. In light of these challenges, this article aims to introduce and evaluate the development of a do-it-yourself (DIY) 3D printed smart bioreactor, offering a cost-effective and user-friendly solution for the proliferation of various bioentities, including bacteria and human organoids, among others. The customized bioreactor was fabricated under an ergonomic design and assembled with 3D printed mechanical parts combined with electronic components, under 3D printed housing. The 3D printed parts were designed using SOLIDWORKS® CAD Software (2022 SP2.0 Professional version) and fabricated via the fused filament fabrication (FFF) technique. All parts were 3D printed with acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) in order for the bioreactor to be used under sterile conditions. The printed low-cost bioreactor integrates Internet-of-things (IoT) functionalities, since it provides the operator with the ability to change its operational parameters (sampling frequency, rotor speed, and duty cycle) remotely, via a user-friendly developed mobile application and to save the user history locally on the device. Using this bioreactor, which is adjusted to a standard commercial 12-well plate, proof of concept of a successful operation of the bioreactor during a 2-day culture of Escherichia coli bacteria (Mach1 strain) is presented. This study paves the way for more in-depth investigation of bacterial and various biological-entity growth cultures, utilizing 3D printing technology to create customized low-cost bioreactors.
Bibliographic details
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Topics and keywords
Funding
- European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme · No. 101037128
- Centre for Research and Technology Hellas · No. 101037128
Perspective and practical signals
Why it matters
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Limitations
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