Recent Patents and Trends in Bioprinting

Bioprinting is the precise automated robotic layer-by-layer additive fabrication of biomaterials. The future of bioprinting technology depends on a number of essential elements, such as the development of innovative bioprinting apparatus and bioprinting methods. The application of innovative bioprinting technologies will have a tremendous impact on the advancement of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. In this review we survey and report on a range of patents and some journal articles that describe the latest advancements in bioprinting as they relate to tissue engineering. Our analysis of the state of the art revealed that novel patents for bioprinting methods can be categorized into three areas; cell free scaffolds, cellularized scaffolds, and cell and tissue bioprinting. Our analysis also revealed a number of trends including the push to design the first clinical bioprinting apparatus and in vivo bioprinting robots, as well as methods to fabricate vascularized tissue and the first clinically approved cell free implants.