Back in 2015, chemist Professor Adam Perriman was hacking 3D plastic printers with his team at the University of Bristol, UK, looking for a way to print biological materials.

Now, at the Australian National University Research School of Chemistry and The John Curtin School of Medical Research he’s harnessing the power of this emerging biotechnology to transform medical research.

It sounds like something straight out of sci-fi, but scientists can now use bioprinting to 3D-print living cells. Along with producing animal-free models to study disease treatments, researchers hope to design a process to 3D-print entire new organs in the future.

It’s a big-ticket goal that has the potential to revolutionise medicine.

“Bioprinting is becoming an exciting technique to address really complex problems,” says Professor Perriman. 

“We're harnessing the power of robotics and automation to answer questions that you couldn't answer any other way.”

Professor Perriman and his team at ANU have designed specialised bioinks for a machine very similar to a 3D printer to create biological structures. Once printed, the cells continue to grow as living tissue.

Lab-grown cancer

Currently, ANU scientists are using 3D bioprinting techniques to duplicate different types of cancer cells for medical research.

"If we want to make real progress in reducing cancer deaths, we need to build more holistic representations of cancer in the lab – and we need to do it at scale," Dr Johnson says.

Bioprinting offers a perfect solution to mass-produce cancer models to be tested against a variety of treatment options. This technique can also be used for developing personalised medical treatment regimes for an individual diagnosed with cancer.

“Fundamentally, when we grow cells in the lab, they are a simplistic model of what's happening in a human body,” says Dr Peter Johnson, a postdoctoral fellow working with Professor Perriman.

The bio-printed cancer models are helping ANU scientists study a new line of anti-cancer treatments that rely on cancer immune cell reactions, known as cell therapies.

But it’s not just cancer researchers that can benefit from 3D bioprinting. It could also save the lives of an enormous number of lab mice, which until now have been vital for this type of research.

“There are approximately 200 million animals sacrificed a year for research, and if we can avoid doing that, then we should,” Dr Johnson says.

From an industry perspective, bioprinting medical models is also cheaper, faster and more efficient than animal models. It’s a win-win solution.

The future of bioprinting

Simultaneously, the team is developing new methods to heal wounds through bioprinting specific tissues, replacing the need for stitches. There’s also a strong pipeline of new drugs and treatments derived from the 3D-printed disease models coming to fruition. 

These innovations are happening now. But what about 3D-printing a new organ, like a lung or a heart?

As organs are incredibly complex and made up of so many intricate parts, ANU researchers are currently focusing on developing the smaller tissues, with the aim of building up to larger organs in time.

“I think the whole-organ printing is really exciting, and it's something that's almost certainly going to happen in the future,” explains Professor Perriman.

“But it's still a major challenge to get to that point.”