Life in Print
Cell by cell, ink-jet printing builds living tissues
By Sarah Webb
Almost as soon as ink-jet printers hit the market in the 1980s, materials researchers realized that the machines could be used to deposit droplets of substances other than ink. In principle, anything that could squeeze through the printhead—including plastics, silicon, or dissolved metals—could be laid out in some precise pattern. And when printed in layers to create three-dimensional structures, such “inks” could allow the rapid design and even production of plastic or electronic parts for a variety of devices (SN: 3/27/04, p. 196).
If ink-jet technology could work for printing plastic and electronic components, researchers suggested, it could also work for custom designing structures built with living cells.