Auto-magically Delivery: Bio3DPrinting guarantees always updated code for biofabrication with Electrospider

Bioprinting is a rapidly evolving sector, which sees a continuous development of methodologies and materials capable of always satisfying new specific needs, both in research and for clinical applications. Among the possibilities developed by Bio3DPrinting, the cloud distribution of bioprinting projects created with the 3D bioprinter Electrospider offers multiple significant advantages.

First, it facilitates sharing and collaboration between researchers, allowing them to easily access and share printing protocols, as will happen in the future with data and results. Thanks to this sharing, the exchange of knowledge is promoted and the advancement of research in the bioprinting sector is supported, in a virtuous circle that should always characterize scientific development.

Secondly, thanks to the sharing of "printing projects" which contain optimized and validated parameters for specific biomaterials, cell types and applications, researchers and operators in the sector can benefit from the experience accumulated by other work teams. This reduces the need to repeat the parameter optimization phase, accelerating the development process and validation of biological constructs.

Finally, the ability to share and reproduce "printing projects" on different machines guarantees consistency and repeatability in the production of quality biological constructs. This is particularly important when considering future clinical applications, for which the production of elements compliant with international quality standards is of paramount importance.

Targeted distribution without the possibility of error

What makes all this possible? First of all, the remote distribution of print files via the network, as Niccolò De Martin, IT engineer and software development manager at Bio3DPrinting explains to us: “We are working intensely to develop and guarantee the possibility of distributing printing protocols directly to customers' computers. An auto-magically delivery, as we like to call it. This is a punctual delivery, safe as it is encrypted with certificates, in which no one can operate from the outside on the operational printing instruction, perhaps unfortunately modifying it, and the possibility of contaminating the command and obtaining a wrong print result is eliminated. With an example that can also be understood by those who are not familiar with IT, the system works a bit like the distribution of the various platforms to which we connect to watch films and series: everyone has their own profile, chooses what they want to see, does not have to install anything to do so and, after viewing, the film or episode remains there available, accessible from their profile but always without the possibility of modifying or deleting them in the central database.

“What we deliver”, explains engineer De Martin, “is an already tested black box, which helps the research teams according to the needs they have explained to us they want to satisfy. What they find on their machines is a set of "tailor made" printing instructions, aimed at the specific result that the researchers want to obtain. This is why consultancy is one of our core businesses”. In this way, the scientists who use our machines and our printing protocols are made completely autonomous with respect to the result they want to obtain: "There is an infinite number of possible customizations", further specifies the software development manager, "also depending on the licensing or the result you want to develop. We do not limit users to a specific method for obtaining the printable file, because each team has different resources and approaches: you may want to experiment with new materials, or new structures and new implants, or serialize biological tests. Bioprinting, in fact, boasts numerous techniques and an infinite number of materials: few customers, however, already have an internal production history and these are mostly experiments".

An open source system at the service of research

The remote distribution system of the files that describe how an object is to be biofabricated is encrypted and versioned. In this way Bio3DPrinting keeps track of all the changes made to the files. In this way, any possibility of the file not being saved due to forgetfulness, or failure to record the processing parameters is excluded.

The technology that allows all this is open source and is the de facto standard for file viewing, not only in software development contexts, but also in manuals. “Open source has a significant advantage for users, who can for example be research centers and universities”, explains De Martin: “They in fact have at their disposal a standard basic library of objects to create and possibly have automatic delivery (since it takes place remotely) of some specific objects. Furthermore, the assistance is carried out on processes known to both Bio3DPrinting and the customer, therefore without the possibility of misalignment".

This, in addition to avoiding errors in the biomanufacturing process, brings two other advantages. On the one hand, it makes it possible to distribute the results and, in the presence of a fleet of machines, everyone does the same thing, always with a backup copy of the instructions. On the other hand, it allows development to be delocalised: teams do not have to move to set up the machines and remote working guarantees a constant virtual presence in the field. 

In practice? “The workflow is very agile and could be as follows: 

• the customer team contacts us to explore the possibility of processing a certain biomaterial with Electropsider to obtain a specific construct
• Bio3DPrinting develops the instructions necessary for the customer to obtain his result and notifies him when the development is finished
• the customer team already finds within its machinery the file to print in GCode with the printing parameters optimized for this biomaterial.

“I believe that the cloud distribution of printing projects created with the Electrospider 3D bioprinter has the enormous advantage of supporting research and encouraging the transition towards clinical application of its products thanks to validated and repeatable parameters that ensure the final quality. Our added value is consultancy, because we don't just sell a machine, but also what we biomanufacture with that machine", concludes Niccolò De Martin.