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Samuel Charles Sklare, et. al.

soft ware components that must be integrated and hundreds or thousands of cells one at a time would be
communicate seamlessly. Programming the computer- an impossible task without automation, regardless of
controlled hardware of a customized bioprinting system the availability of a responsive and integrated GUI.
to carry out printing or micromachining tasks requires However, the importance of this single-cell resolution
expertise with each advanced programming interface should not be understated. For example, creating
(API) provided by the original equipment manufacturer multicellular constructs from single cells allows re-
and knowledge of all the printing and material para- searchers to study cellular cross-talk in a simplified,
meters. Some systems use graphical user interfaces well-controlled model rather than as part of a larger
(GUIs) which are only capable of controlling some tissue with several cell types. Several applications of
of the hardware but not in an integrated manner. For single-cell resolution printing are discussed in Sklare et
example, the laser default fires a pulse at a predefined al. [4]
time rather than waiting for the substrate stage to arrive Laser direct-write is a contact-free printing approach
at a location. Controlling a printing system by loading with greater spatial control than contact printing methods
[5]
a prewritten static script or using a awkward GUI with- such as ink-jet and extrusion bioprinting . In addition to
out automation or integration is a barrier to LDW’s additive manufacturing with micrometer scale transfer
ability to perform high-throughput, parallel biological accuracy, direct-write systems can process the receiving
experiments for applications, such as drug screening, substrate by subtractively micromachining features
[6]
with unambiguous results. The current implementation into the hydrogels or other substrates, and be used for
[7]
of the GUI application is built on the QT framework for single-step microbead fabrication . Cell transfer, micro-
++
++
C , which links to C programming resources provided beads, and micromachining are complimentary laser
by multiple independent manufacturers and incorporates direct-write capabilities that can and should be used
them seamlessly in a Python environment. together and managed through a convenient interface.
While LDW can be used to print individual cells, Herein we detail the development of novel GUI
single-cell resolution printing is a challenge without software to improve LDW capability and functionality.
automation, as each cell must be manually targeted. The main modules in the control software correspond to
Print ribbons for single-cell resolution printing are cell transfer, microbead fabrication, and micromachining
sparsely prepared, making it difficult to find cells to (Figure 2). The modules make the control of each of
transfer before the ribbon begins to dry out. Manually these features and, the management of printing programs
building intercellular networks or tissue constructs with that utilize one or more features, to be facile. The soft-

Figure 2. Schematic representation of micromachining, microbead fabrication and cell printing with the same system

International Journal of Bioprinting (2017)–Volume 3, Issue 2 101