Low-cost 3D bioprinter has potential for biomedical breakthroughs

The researchers – from Carnegie Mellon University’s Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) and Biomedical Engineering (BME) Associate Professor Adam Feinberg, BME postdoctoral fellow TJ Hinton, and recent MSE graduate Kira Pusch - recently published a paper in HardwareX. The paper contains instructions for printing and installing the syringe-based, large volume extruder (LVE) to modify many commercial plastic printers.

"What we've created is a large volume syringe pump extruder that works with almost any open source fused deposition modelling (FDM) printer,” said Pusch. " This means that it's an inexpensive and relatively easy adaptation for people who use 3D printers."

In a paper titled Large volume syringe pump extruder for desktop 3D printers, the team explain that most commercial 3D bioprinters range from $10,000 to over $200,000 and are typically proprietary machines, closed-source, and difficult to modify.

"Essentially, we've developed a bioprinter that you can build for under $500, that I would argue is at least on par with many that cost far more money," said Feinberg, who is also a member of the Bioengineered Organs Initiative at Carnegie Mellon. "Most 3D bioprinters start between $10K and $20K. This is significantly cheaper, and we provide very detailed instructional videos. It's really about democratising technology and trying to get it into more people's hands."