Scalable Biofabrication: A Perspective on the Current State and Future Potentials of Process Automation in 3D-Bioprinting Applications

Biofabrication, specifically 3D-Bioprinting, has the potential to disruptively impact a wide range of future technological developments to improve human well-being. Organs-on-Chips could enable animal-free and individualized drug development, printed organs may help to overcome non-treatable diseases as well as deficiencies in donor organs and cultured meat may solve a worldwide environmental threat in factory farming. A high degree of manual labor in the laboratory in combination with little trained personnel leads to high costs and is along with strict regulations currently often a hindrance to the commercialization of technologies that have already been well researched. This paper therefore illustrates current developments in process automation in 3D-Bioprinting and provides a perspective on how the use of proven and new automation solutions can help to overcome regulatory and technological hurdles to achieve an economically scalable production.