About this Research Topic
3D printing technology is a benefit for biomedical engineers and scientists. Researchers all around the world are working on this technology to rectify various limitations. Though this technology is very old, lots of unknown areas are still unexplored and need to be addressed. The limitations of 3D printing and bioprinting technology are listed below:
1. Limited Materials
2. Restricted Build Size
3. Post Processing
4. Large Volumes
5. Part Structure
6. Reduction in Manufacturing Jobs
7. Design Inaccuracies
8. Copyright Issues
Additionally, further limitations of 3D bioprinting must be addressed:
-Questions of liability if a printed object fails.
-Disputed ownership of the codes and implants produced.
-Various ethical concerns.
-Pricing; availability to only the wealthy.
-Difficulty in maintaining cell environment, resulting in the death of many cells.
-Development of fully functional organs is still not possible.
These limitations will be discussed and covered in this collection. All the recent developments that are done for rectifying these limitations will be covered in this collection as much as possible.
The type of manuscripts which are suitable for this section are listed below:
a) Metallic, ceramic, polymeric, composite, smart materials, and nanomaterials used by 3D printing for biomedical and tissue engineering applications.
b) Advancements in drug delivery and drug design by this technology.
c) The connection between microfluidic devices (Lab-on-a-chip) and bioprinting technology for biomimetic microenvironment with a heterogeneous 3D structure.
d) Recent advancements of this technology in various tissue engineering applications like skin, bone, cartilage, artificial organs etc.
e) 4D printing recent advancements in biomedical applications.
Keywords: Bioprinting, Biomaterials, Bioinks, Scaffolds, In vitro, 3D printing, 4D printing
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.