3-D Bioprinting Is Heading to Space

Russia's space program reportedly wants to get a magnetic, zero-gravity, 3-D bioprinter onboard the International Space Station by 2018.

Chris Newmarker

Russia's state-run United Rocket and Space Corp. (Roscosmos) has inked a deal with a company called 3D Bioprinting Solutions to create a bioprinter able to operate in the weightless environment of space. 

The goal is to have a bioprinter ready for delivery to the International Space Station by 2018, according to a news release from Roscosmos. The news release described 3D Bioprinting Solutions as a resident of the high tech Skolkovo Innovation Center area outside Moscow. 

A compact bioprinter on ISS could be used for research on how space radiation effects human tissue and organs--a major concern for any type of long space exploration mission. The bioprinter might also provide insights into how replacement organs might someday be printed for space crews exploring deep space and other planets, said Roscosmos's general director Yuri Vlasov.

Experiments in zero-gravity environments might also aid regenerative medicine innovations back on Earth. 

Other forms of 3-D printing are already available on ISS, including Made in Space's zero-gravity 3-D printer, says the blog www.3Ders.org. 

Bioprinting is a hot area for medtech, with a great deal of research taking place around the world in the field. Recently, University of Bristol researchers in the U.K. said they were able to engineer 3-D printed tissue structures including a full-size tracheal cartilage ring over five weeks, using a special bio-ink formulation created after an arduous trial and error process. 

Other innovations in recent years include the work of Harvard University researchers led by Jennifer Lewis, PhD, who used a custom four-head 3-D printer and a novel ink to create a patch of tissue composed of skin cells and an extracellular matrix material that was interwoven with blood-vessel-like tubular structures.

Chris Newmarker is senior editor of Qmed. Follow him on Twitter at @newmarker.

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[Image of sunrise from the International Space Station by Scott Kelly--Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth, Public Domain]