AVS 49th International Symposium
    Biomaterials Thursday Sessions
       Session BI-ThA

Paper BI-ThA5
Development of a High Throughput Cell Printing Platform

Thursday, November 7, 2002, 3:20 pm, Room C-201

Session: Cell Patterning to Engineer Function
Presenter: T. Boland, Clemson University
Authors: M.V. Deshpande, Clemson University
E.A. Roth, Clemson University
A. Gutowska, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
T. Boland, Clemson University
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High throughput cell printing has a potential to be a very valuable technique in the field of tissue engineering and genomics. A single nozzle cell pen and multi nozzle cell printer have been designed and developed to explore this area. New techniques are being developed to apply these tools for precise placement of cells with high throughput capabilities. The printer nozzles can be loaded with a known concentration of cells in solution or a pre-polymerized hydrogel solution. Pressure created by low power piezoelectric signals will push the cell solution onto a substrate in a programmed design. The cell printer was designed to print cell suspensions to media of any thickness. The body of the printer is made from PMMA with off the shelf printing components (logic board, encoder, etc.). The printer is equipped with a newly designed print head connected to sterile stainless steel hypodermic needles (gauge 30). The needles are individually addressable through piezo driven transducers. Finally, the software drivers were custom written to allow for computer-controlled delivery of single drops. In single-pass mode, the new printer is able to print 80pl drops onto substrata of varying thickness up to 1 inch. Preliminary results indicate a success in developing an array of cells. The cells are alive and healthy as determined by the green stain of the live/dead assay. This indicates the potential of printing small sheets of cells. Other techniques will be investigated to extend the use of the printer to print fluid hydrogel solutions into patterns for use as cell culture templates. Current investigation emphasizes characterizing and comparing temperature sensitive hydrogel mediums. Collagen I, a PLGA based biodegradable gel, and PIPAaM are being investigated. We will present this single cell platform technology and discuss the extension of the technology for two and three-dimensional cultivating systems of varying geometries.