Wir überwinden Grenzen

3D printing is also becoming increasingly important in medicine. This technology appears to be particularly promising for regenerative medicine. A working group at the Department of Plastic and Hand Surgery at the Freiburg University Medical Center is now being funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) for three years with around 240,000 euros. The aim is to develop and research a platform for the 3D printing of artificial tissue, known as bioprinting. The funding, which started in August, is part of the "3D-Bio-Net" research network, which consists of six small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and three university research groups and is coordinated by microTEC Südwest e.V.. "3D-Bio-Net" will be supported over three years with a total budget of around 2.4 million euros.

"With the help of bioprinting, living tissue can be artificially produced to fit precisely," says Prof. Dr. Günter Finkenzeller, Head of Research at the Department of Plastic and Hand Surgery at the Freiburg University Medical Center. In bioprinting, living cells are dissolved in a hydrogel, also known as bioink. These living cells are then printed using a 3D printer. This allows three-dimensional structures to be planned and precisely constructed on the computer. "The hope is that we can use the printed, living tissue to replace or regenerate diseased tissue in a patient," says Prof. Finkenzeller. "Based on this work, artificial tissue could be produced faster, safer and more patient-specific in the future." In an ongoing project, researchers led by Prof. Finkenzeller are working on printing bone tissue with blood vessels already in place.

The aim of the new project is to develop and test an open technical platform for 3D bioprinting. To this end, all process components such as the bioprinter required for printing, the data preparation and control software and the required bioinks are to be established and optimized. This project should help to bring 3D bioprinting much closer to a later clinical application.

In addition to the Freiburg University Medical Center, the partners involved include BioFluidix GmbH, the Institute of Microsystems Engineering (IMTEK) at the University of Freiburg, the NMI Natural and Medical Sciences Institute at the University of Tübingen and a spin-off from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (vasQlab) as well as other experts.

Caption: Members of the "3D-Bio-Net" research network
Image source: microTEC Südwest

Contact 
Prof. Dr. Günter Finkenzeller 
Head of Research Section 
Clinic for Plastic and Hand Surgery 
Freiburg University Medical Center 
Phone: 0761 270-63670 
guenter.finkenzeller@uniklinik-freiburg.de