Chapter 15

Current Trends and Challenges in Biofabrication Using Biomaterials and Nanomaterials: Future Perspectives for 3D/4D Bioprinting

Luciano P. Silva

Luciano P. Silva

Embrapa Genetic Resources and Biotechnology (Cenargen), Laboratory of Nanobiotechnology (LNANO), Brasília 70770-917, DF, Brazil

University of Brasília (UnB), Postgraduate Programs in Nanoscience and Nanobiotechnology and in Molecular Biology, Brasília 70910-900, DF, Brazil

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First published: 14 December 2018
Citations: 11

Summary

Biofabrication is a multidisciplinary research field combining principles from engineering, biology, and material sciences through the use of manufacturing processes to create bioconstructs that mimic in some extent the architecture of living systems. Indeed, it debuted in scientific scenario as potential strategies for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine aiming at the production of tissues for reconstruction, organs for transplantation, and organoid models for drug discovery and cosmetics testing, but now agriculture and veterinary as well as food industry benefit from this emerging field. Probably, hydrogels represent the most important building blocks for the production of scaffolds and cell entrapment for biofabrication. Interestingly, natural polymers derived from agricultural, forestry, and livestock products and mainly their by-products are the most largely used raw materials for production of hydrogels because they are abundant, inexpensive, renewable, biodegradable, biocompatible, and considered appropriate from structural and mechanical standpoints. Recently, nanomaterials have also attracted great attention for biofabrication because of their unique properties that arise from nanoscale that offers a plethora of new possibilities to meet scientific demands. A recent trend related to this scenario is the termed 4D biofabrication that goals to construct and fine-tune 3D biostructures through dynamic processes of self-assembly that could modulate their morphologies or functionalities over time, particularly when a certain chemical, biological, or physical stimulus is applied to smart materials or cell/tissue/organ post-processing self-organization occurs. In sum, it is expected that biofabrication will continue to break scientific paradigms and revolutionize researchers' thinking process in the future years, and the use of biomaterials and nanomaterials may represent the next revolution in biofabrication at the cutting edge of technological innovation.

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