Application areas of 3D bioprinting

• Bioprinting is a powerful technology in tissue and organ fabrication.
• Bioprinting has gained significant interest in medicine and pharmaceutics.
• Bioprinting has been widely used in various application areas.
• Bioprinting technology is transiting to pharmaceutics and high-throughput screening.
• Bioprinting for cancer research is an emerging direction.

Three dimensional (3D) bioprinting has been a powerful tool in patterning and precisely placing biologics, including living cells, nucleic acids, drug particles, proteins and growth factors, to recapitulate tissue anatomy, biology and physiology. Since the first time of cytoscribing cells demonstrated in 1986, bioprinting has made a substantial leap forward, particularly in the past 10 years, and it has been widely used in fabrication of living tissues for various application areas. The technology has been recently commercialized by several emerging businesses, and bioprinters and bioprinted tissues have gained significant interest in medicine and pharmaceutics. This Keynote review presents the bioprinting technology and covers a first-time comprehensive overview of its application areas from tissue engineering and regenerative medicine to pharmaceutics and cancer research.