Build instructions are described to enable easy uptake, modification and improvement by other laboratories, as well provide an accessible platform for learning and education.

Fluid delivery can be achieved using LEGO pumps and readily available, or home-3D-printed, microfluidic components, therefore avoiding the need for any specialist microfluidic hardware. The printing of 3D structures containing multiple bio-inks is demonstrated and live cells are imaged in the resulting bioprints. Fluid flow rates and printer speed, together with bio-ink gelation rate, determine droplet packing arrangement in the bioprinted structures. 3D bioprinted structures are formed from the deposition of microfluidically generated bio-ink droplets containing live keratinocyte skin cells, representing components toward an artificial skin model. This study demonstrates construction of a benchtop LEGO 3D bioprinter for additive layer manufacture of a 3D structure containing viable human skin cells within a hydrogel scaffold. LEGO toy construction bricks represent low-cost, precision engineered, and versatile construction materials for rapid prototyping. The development of analogous approaches to fabrication of soft-matter, and biologically compatible materials containing living cells, is anticipated to be similarly enabling across multiple fields of biological research. The development of low-cost accessible technologies for rapid prototyping of mechanical components has democratised engineering tools for hobbyists and researchers alike.

Lego 3d builder online