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Commercialization of bioprinting technology
Such technical solutions could be used for The bioprinting process is carried out with high
chronic wounds such as diabetic, venous, and precision and can be conducted from various
pressure ulcers and burn wounds that affect over angles. Moreover, the computer vision system
7 million patients in the United States with an brings adaptability to the system, allowing us
annual treatment expenditure of US$ 25 billion . to use it on various wounds and defects without
[11]
Globally, this statistic increases to 11 million injuries additional reconfiguration of the software, while
per year. Chronic, large or non-healing wounds IR proximity sensors ensure trajectory adjustment
are especially costly because they often require for breathing and other physiological processes. In
multiple treatments; for example, a single diabetic situ bioprinting will allow to print structures with
foot ulcer can cost approximately US$ 50,000 to small (300 µm) pores, which help maintain optimal
treat. Full-thickness skin injuries are a major source temperature and humidity inside the healing
of mortality and morbidity for civilians, with an wound, thereby speeding up the healing process
estimated 500,000 civilians who were treated for and lowering the incidence of complications.
these injuries in the United States each year [12-15] . However, it also has some disadvantages (not
Bioprinting technology could also be used only technological ones) such as bioprinters, cell
for military purposes. For example, for military material and biomaterials of substrates (scaffolds)
personnel, burn injuries account for 10 – 30% of registration for their use in clinical practice,
combat casualties in conventional warfare. US clinical and pre-clinical trials, and intellectual
company nScrypt partnered with the U.S. Military property registration. Nevertheless, we see positive
in the Uniformed Services University 4D Bio3 changes in approaching the idea of printing tissues
Program to develop a special bioprinter for point- and organs, not just scientific publications.
of-care bioprinting in unexposed conditions . It
[16]
is possible that this program will bioprint meniscus 3 Space bioprinting
from live cells and hydrogel-based scaffolds.
Economic impact on potential markets of in As we divined in our previous review, commercial
situ bioprinting could be considered as following: companies started to provide B2S (business-
The global wound care market is estimated to to-science) services of conducting experiments
reach US$ 25 billion by 2024 (Wound Care Market for research institutions on the international
[17]
by Product, Research and Markets, 2019). space station (ISS) . Commercial companies,
We are targeting the following segments: such as 3D Bioprinting Solutions, Techshot, and
• Skin grafts for patients with post-operative nScrypt, have set series of experiments in space.
defects after removal of skin tumors or diabetic Interestingly, for these experiments, bioprinting
ulcers technology was used not only for regenerative
• Plastic surgery applications medicine purposes but also for other research
• Orthopedic surgeries purposes, such as:
• Military and civilian field surgery for burn • Bacteria behavior in space study
victims. Conventionally, genetic antibiotic resistance
We estimate that the skin bioprinting market research is carried out on 2D cultures on earth.
will reach around US$ 1 billion by 2024 (3D However, such experiment design ignores
Bioprinting Market Report, Roots Analysis, 2014). the fact that bacteria in living organisms tend
A further US$ 130 million is the estimated size to form 3D biofilms, which have the unique
of the cartilage bioprinting market by 2024. phenotypic antibiotic resistance, due to the
Since in situ, bioprinting has a lot of advantages fact that antibiotic molecules do not diffuse
as automatization of the application process that into the full volume of a biofilm.
allows to create multi-layered constructs (of • Protein structure modeling in space
complex geometrical shapes) made of configurable There is a lot of interest in structure prediction
hydrogel solution with autologous patient cells. as a screening process for proteins that are

64 International Journal of Bioprinting (2020)–Volume 6, Issue 3