Moldovan, Nicanor I.Moldovan, LeniRaghunath, Michael2019-11-152019-11-152019Moldovan, N., Maldovan, L., & Raghunath, M. (2019). Of balls, inks and cages: Hybrid biofabrication of 3D tissue analogs. International Journal of Bioprinting, 5(1). http://dx.doi.org/10.18063/ijb.v5i1.167https://hdl.handle.net/1805/21354The overarching principle of three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting is the placing of cells or cell clusters in the 3D space to generate a cohesive tissue microarchitecture that comes close to in vivo characteristics. To achieve this goal, several technical solutions are available, generating considerable combinatorial bandwidth: (i) Support structures are generated first, and cells are seeded subsequently; (ii) alternatively, cells are delivered in a printing medium, so-called “bioink,” that contains them during the printing process and ensures shape fidelity of the generated structure; and (iii) a “scaffold-free” version of bioprinting, where only cells are used and the extracellular matrix is produced by the cells themselves, also recently entered a phase of accelerated development and successful applications. However, the scaffold-free approaches may still benefit from secondary incorporation of scaffolding materials, thus expanding their versatility. Reversibly, the bioink-based bioprinting could also be improved by adopting some of the principles and practices of scaffold-free biofabrication. Collectively, we anticipate that combinations of these complementary methods in a “hybrid” approach, rather than their development in separate technological niches, will largely increase their efficiency and applicability in tissue engineering.enAttribution-NonCommercial 3.0 United Statestissue engineeringscaffoldsbioprintingArticle