M3D-BIO - Microfluidics-Enabled 3D Printing for Biofabrication

Microfluidics market is the fastest growing research area in the world, and they have shown much promise in biofabrication and 3D bioprinting of tissues and organs. However, microfluidics is conventionally produced using drawn-out and expensive lithographic methods, hindering their wider uptake. To this end, we have established a streamlined pipeline which incorporates simulation, design, fabrication and validation processes to produce versatile microfluidic chip nozzles for a range of applications in biofabrication. The microfluidic devices are produced by combining material extrusion additive manufacturing (MEAM) with innovative design approaches to achieve leak-free and low-surface roughness channels without any need of special tubing. These microfluidic chip nozzles create complex anisotropic fibrous core-shell structures matching blood vessels at resolutions not reported previously. The results of this study show that the novel microfluidics system can be adopted in a wide range of applications from tissue scaffolds, cell culture systems, biochemical sensors and lab-on-a-chips, paving ways for next generation of 3D-printed microfluidics in biofabrication.