05/12/2016 — Singapore-based 3D printing company Structo and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) have recently been awarded the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Cluster (NAMIC) grant for developing 3D bioprinting capabilities aimed towards tissue replication. The grant amount of S$200,000 will be used to steer efforts towards promoting 3D tissue engineering in Singapore

Aligned with its constant effort to push the boundaries of additive manufacturing, Structo has been looking into potential opportunities for future 3D printing applications. With its patented Mask Stereolithography (MSLA) technology that enables high throughput and large built volume, the company is currently solely focused on developing solutions specifically for the area of digital dentistry. With major developments in healthcare applications, the 3D bioprinting space has garnered much attention in recent times. The global 3D bioprinting market is expected to reach USD 1.82 billion by 2022, according to reports by Grand View Research Inc. Setting the relevant building blocks in place today, Structo will be well-positioned to lead the industry as it ventures into validating strategic progress in the field.

Concept schematic of 3D tissue models from 3D bioprinting of hydrogels

As part of this collaboration, Structo aims to achieve ‘design to target solutions’ with a versatile fabrication technique that would address the growing necessity for a high throughput method for 3D cell patterning at the micrometer scale for a broad range of biomedical engineering applications. With the potential to address several critical challenges in the current tissue engineering paradigm, 3D bioprinting holds promise to a new age of complex fabrication of micro- and macro-scale biological systems.