By Chad Hanson / University of Miami News Desk
At a recent open house, the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine offered faculty, clinicians and researchers a glimpse into a technology that is transforming medicine. 3D bioprinting once seemed like science fiction. But the far-fetched has quickly transformed into the possible.
Today, Miller School researchers and engineers are printing human tissue, designing patient-specific implants and creating microscopic drug delivery systems from the 3D Bioprinting Facility housed within the Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation Biomedical Nanotechnology Institute (BioNIUM).
“It’s a little bit like Star Trek,” said Sylvia Daunert, Ph.D., Lucille P. Markey Chair in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and director of the BioNIUM. “Remember the movies with nano-submarines that go inside the body? Well, we’re doing that. We make molecules called nano-carriers that recognize diseased cells. They act like a GPS and deliver drugs where they’re needed. These technologies are making a huge impact on medicine.”
How 3D Bioprinting Works With Living Cells
Star Trek notwithstanding, the 3D Bioprinting Facility was designed to accelerate scientific discovery, translation and clinical application, all under one roof.
Unlike conventional 3D printing, which typically uses plastics or metals, bioprinting works with living cells, proteins and biomaterials. These components are layered with extraordinary precision to replicate the structure and function of human tissues.
At the Miller School facility, that precision can reach down to the nanoscale. Researchers can fabricate structures with resolutions as fine as 200 nanometers, opening the door to highly detailed biological constructs. The capacity to preserve the viability separates 3D bioprinting from predecessor technologies.
“If you look at some of the other things that have been done, like heating up filaments to hundreds of degrees for extrusion…that would kill cells,” said Vasudev Vivekanand Nayak, Ph.D., the 3D Bioprinting Facility’s operational manager. “If you have any sort of temperature-sensitive drug that you want to incorporate within your tissue constructs, extreme heat would destroy it. You need equipment that can print live cells or any sort of bioactive molecules or growth factors at a physiological temperature. It’s really hard to do and has not been attempted in many cases in the past. But it’s happening here.”
From Tissue Models to Patient-Specific Implants
This capability enables scientists to create everything from tissue-like structures for research to micro-engineered devices for drug delivery or implant while preserving living cells during the printing process.
“We’re making operating tools for surgeons, creating artificial tissues, layer by layer, for discovery research, recreating bones and developing microfluidics for point-of-care tests. We can make microchips for computer-brain interfaces, artificial organs,” said Dr. Daunert. “We’re pushing the envelope of what science can do.”
The facility functions as both a research engine and a clinical support system. Its evolving capabilities provide end-to-end support within the Miller School’s academic medicine framework, from design and prototyping to fabrication.
“We’re doing anatomic models for virtual and actual surgical planning. We’re doing scaffolds for bone regeneration. We’re creating microneedles for dermal drug delivery,” Dr. Nayak said. “We’re doing everything that the clinicians and researchers need here at the University of Miami.”
BioNIUM’s Nanofabrication Facility complements and, in some cases, completes the 3D bioprinting work, with capabilities for thin film deposition, film etching and characterization, photolithography, electron beam lithography and scanning electron microscopy.
“While 3D bioprinting is vital to overall fabrication, offering a faster, more cost-effective approach than traditional micro- and nanofabrication, the traditional route remains essential in many cases,” said Bahar Motlagh, Ph.D., BioNIUM’s director of facilities. “The Nanofabrication Facility provides critical post-printing support, such as using plasma cleaners to bond 3D-printed microfluidic channels and deploying advanced imaging technologies to evaluate printed parts and approve designs, surface topography and elemental and mechanical analysis.”
Advancing Regenerative and Reconstructive Medicine
The 3D Bioprinting Facility’s work is undergirded by peer-reviewed research that is helping to define how bioprinting moves from laboratory innovation to clinical reality.
Paulo Coelho, M.D., D.D.S., Ph.D., leads the research initiatives that drive the 3D Bioprinting Facility. As senior author of a comprehensive 2024 review of the field published in Bioengineering, Dr. Coelho and colleagues, including Dr. Nayak, describe how 3D bioprinting is reshaping reconstructive and regenerative medicine across multiple surgical disciplines.
The core strength of bioprinting, Dr. Coelho’s team noted, lies in its ability to create complex, multi-tissue constructs that closely mimic natural human anatomy down to the spatial organization of cells and extracellular structures. This level of precision enables entirely new approaches to surgical reconstruction, from engineered skin and cartilage to bone and nerve repair.
In orthopedics, for example, bioprinted scaffolds can be designed to promote new bone growth while maintaining mechanical strength. These advances may potentially replace traditional grafting procedures that rely on harvesting tissue from a patient’s body. In plastic and reconstructive surgery, researchers are developing bioprinted skin and soft tissues that could improve healing in complex wounds.
The implications extend further. These constructs can be built from patient-specific imaging and, increasingly, patient-derived cells. They open the door to personalized treatments tailored to individual anatomy and biology.
At the same time, Dr. Coelho’s work underscores the challenges that must be addressed before widespread clinical adoption. Among the most significant are the ability to sustain blood flow within printed tissues and long-term integration with the body and durability after implantation.
Still, the trajectory is clear. With continued advances in materials, imaging and printing techniques, 3D bioprinting is poised to fundamentally transform surgical care and improve patient outcomes.
Why the Miller School’s Facility Is a Regional Leader
As the most advanced facility of its kind in South Florida, the 3D Bioprinting Facility is uniquely positioned to drive innovation. Its integration within an academic medical center fosters continuous collaboration between researchers and clinicians.
“This is where we advance science and technology,” Dr. Daunert said. “A surgeon can come to us with a CT scan and say, ‘I need an implant for an operation in a few hours. Can you make it for me?’ And we can devise whatever they need.”
As 3D bioprinting continues to evolve at the Miller School, the line between imagination and clinical reality is rapidly dissolving into to a future where treatments are faster, more precise and deeply personalized.
This report was originally produced and published by the University of Miami, and it has been reposted here with permission.
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