It is capable of printing everything from soft brain tissue to rigid cartilage and bone.

A team of biomedical engineers at the University of Melbourne has unveiled a groundbreaking 3D bioprinting technology that can recreate human tissue structures in mere seconds — offering unprecedented speed, precision, and potential for medical research.

This revolutionary bioprinter departs from conventional layer-by-layer fabrication by using vibrating bubbles and acoustic waves to position cells with cellular-level accuracy. Capable of printing everything from soft brain tissue to rigid cartilage and bone, the new system is up to 350 times faster than existing methods and eliminates the need for fragile manual transfers of printed cells.

The development could be a major breakthrough for cancer research and drug development, enabling scientists to accurately replicate complex organs and tissues in lab. By offering a more ethical and precise alternative to animal testing, the technology also supports the advancement of personalized medicine.

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“In addition to drastically improving print speed, our approach enables a degree of cell positioning within printed tissues,” said Associate Professor David Collins, head of the Collins BioMicrosystems Laboratory.

“Incorrect cell positioning is a big reason most 3D bioprinters fail to produce structures that accurately represent human tissue.”

He compared the need for cell organization in tissues to the importance of assembling a car’s mechanical parts in the correct order. “Our system uses acoustic waves generated by a vibrating bubble to position cells within the structures, giving them the head start needed to develop into fully functioning tissues,” Collins explained to SciTechDaily.

Traditional bioprinters often take hours to produce cell structures and require delicate handling to transfer them into lab environments — procedures that threaten cell survival and structural integrity. In contrast, the University of Melbourne’s optical-based approach prints directly into standard laboratory plates in just seconds, boosting viability and maintaining sterility throughout the process.

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PhD student Callum Vidler, lead author of the study published in Nature, emphasized the response from the research community. “Biologists have long seen the promise of bioprinting, but practical applications were limited by slow output and low resolution,” he said. “Our technology bridges that gap with speed, precision, and consistency.”

The team has already attracted significant interest, engaging with over 60 researchers from institutions such as Harvard Medical School, the Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre, and the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.

The study, Dynamic Interface Printing, was supported by the Australian Research Council, National Health and Medical Research Council, the Centre of Excellence for Transformative Meta-Optical Systems, the University of Melbourne, and the Royal Melbourne Hospital.