Innovative cell printing technologies hold promise for tissue engineering R&D

A novel method for printing human cells onto surfaces in defined patterns can help advance research on tissue engineering and regeneration, as described in an article in Tissue Engineering, Part C, Methods. “Cell printing is one of the breakthrough technologies that will make the application of stem cells for tissue engineering feasible," says John Jansen, DDS, Methods Co-Editor-in-Chief. Yu Fang and his colleagues at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, combined two microscale techniques to dispense and position cells in a variety of patterns. They then demonstrated the ability to use these 3-dimensional cell systems to monitor cell signaling events that impact the growth, proliferation and metastasis of cancer cells.