Old Inkjet Becomes New Bio-Materials Printer

MikeChino writes "Instructables member Patrik has successfully transformed an old HP5150 inkjet printer into a DIY bioprinter. To do this he removed the plastic covers and panels and rewired the paper handling mechanism. Then he prepped ink cartridges to be able to handle biological materials by opening the lid, removing the ink, and washing it out with deionized water. For his first experiment, he printed a simple solution of arabinose onto filter paper."

Re:Isn't the goal to print live cells?

[WillAffleckUW]

We use the print heads to deliver specific measurements of various biological and chemical liquids in our labs here at the UW in Seattle.

Been doing it for years. I remember a seminar around 2005 was the first I saw, but it might precede then.

Re:Thermal or Piezo?

[Patrik D'haeseleer]

Yes, thermal does work much better than you would natively expect? In fact, other research groups have specifically looked for heat shock effects on live cells after printing using thermal inkjet, and found very little sign of any. Thermal and piezo printers both seem to work well to print live cells, although occasionally you hear one side claim that the other's printer technology doesn't work (Thermal printer will cook the cell! Piezo printers use the same frequencies as used to sonicate cells!)