Live cells jetted with electric fields

January 12, 2006 | Source: Physics Web

A team of biophysicists in the UK has used a form of ink-jet printing to create “jets” of living cells for the first time.

Suwan Jayasinghe of University College London and colleagues at Kings College London say their technique, which does not destroy the cells, could be used to grow biological tissue or even human organs. The technique involves jetting biological cells from a needle at fields of up to 30 kilovolts.

The technique may have huge potential for patterning predetermined 2D and 3D biological architectures, such as tissues and organs, at the micron and nanometer scales.