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RESEARCH ARTICLE

Ecologically Friendly Biofunctional Ink for

Reconstruction of Rigid Living Systems Under Wet

Conditions

Alan Avila-Ramírez , Alexander U. Valle-Pérez , Hepi Hari Susapto , Rosario Pérez-Pedroza ,
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Giuseppina R. Briola , Abdulelah Alrashoudi , Zainab Khan , Panayiotis Bilalis ,
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Charlotte A. E. Hauser *
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1 Laboratory for Nanomedicine, Division of Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering, King Abdullah
University of Science and Technology, Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia
2 Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology,
Thuwal 23955-69900, Saudi Arabia
Abstract: The development of three-dimensional (3D)-printable inks is essential for several applications, from industrial
manufacturing to novel applications for biomedical engineering. Remarkably, biomaterials for tissue engineering applications
can be expanded to other new horizons; for instance, restoration of rigid living systems as coral reefs is an emergent need derived
from recent issues from climate change. The coral reefs have been endangered, which can be observed in the increasing bleaching
around the world. Very few studies report eco-friendly inks for matter since most conventional approaches require synthetic
polymer, which at some point could be a pollutant depending on the material. Therefore, there is an unmet need for cost-effective
formulations from eco-friendly materials for 3D manufacturing to develop carbonate-based inks for coral reef restoration. Our
value proposition derives from technologies developed for regenerative medicine, commonly applied for human tissues like
bone and cartilage. In our case, we created a novel biomaterial formulation from biopolymers such as gelatin methacrylate, poly
(ethylene glycol diacrylate), alginate, and gelatin as scaffold and binder for the calcium carbonate and hydroxyapatite bioceramics
needed to mimic the structure of rigid structures. This project presents evidence from 2D/3D manufacturing, chemical, mechanical,
and biological characterization, which supports the hypothesis of its utility to aid in the fight to counteract the coral bleaching that
affects all the marine ecosystem, primarily when this is supported by solid research in biomaterials science used for living systems,
it can extend tissue engineering into new approaches in different domains such as environmental or marine sciences.
Keywords: Bioprinting; Biopolymers; Bioceramics; Rigid tissue; Crosslinking; Ecofriendly

*Correspondence to: Charlotte A. E. Hauser, Laboratory for Nanomedicine, Division of Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering,
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia; charlotte.hauser@kaust.edu.sa
Received: June 15, 2021; Accepted: July 21, 2021; Published Online: August 19, 2021

Citation: Avila-Ramírez A, Valle-Perez AU, Susapto HH, et al., 2021, Ecologically Friendly Biofunctional Ink for Reconstruction of Rigid
Living Systems Under Wet Conditions. Int J Bioprint, 7(4):398. http://doi.org/10.18063/ijb.v7i4.398

1. Introduction a trending topic for medical applications. Researchers
commonly look for natural sources that could potentially
Biomaterials have been essential elements in developing be chemically and physically modified to surpass their
technologies that counteract the current issues in the ground state behavior . A couple of examples are gelatin
[3]
biomedical field . On the other hand, there is a strong and alginate as one of the classic materials for tissue
[1]
interest from the industry to create new technologies based regeneration. Gelatin comes from inexpensive natural
on eco-friendly biopolymers that can be cost-effective sources; on the other side, alginate has ionic-crosslinking
for the current needs in the market . Therefore, several behavior that permits crosslinking with cations such
[2]
studies coming from the development of biomaterials are as calcium. Both biopolymers are used for cartilage
© 2021 Avila-Ramírez, et al. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, permitting distribution
and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is cited.
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