Insitu 3D Printing of Adhesive and Conductive Bioink

Despite bio-mimicking characteristics, hydrogels do not exhibit diverse balance properties of rheology, electro-mechanical, cellular adhesion, and controlled gelation, needed for rapid in-situ 3D bioprinting for tissue engineering. To integrate divergent properties, we present a tailorable, visible light photocurable, bio-derived methacrylated gelatin-based bioink material platform, functionalized with a conductive choline-based bio ionic liquid. The resultant photocrosslinked polymer is transparent, conductive, antifouling, and flexible with excellent cell adhesion. Controllable crosslinking, achieved by varying reactants composition, allows the use of this bio-ink platform for easy, rapid 3D bioprinting of complex designs, directly on the skin. We propose a general approach to produce bioink material platforms by photoconjugating methacrylated biocompatible polymer backbones with bio ionic liquids to render versatile compositions for direct in situ 3D bioprinting of conductive tissue scaffolds.