Volumetric building blocks: A simple and modular approach to create perfusable models via assembly of volumetrically printed subunits
- 1Department of Functional Materials in Medicine and Dentistry, Institute of Functional Materials and Biofabrication (IFB), and Bavarian Polymer Institute (BPI),
Abstract
Tomographic volumetric additive manufacturing (tVAM) enables rapid 3D printing of constructs with intricate, freestanding geometries. Besides demonstrating very promising applications in tissue engineering and biofabrication, a limitation of the technology has been the relatively high material consumption and limited maximal model size due to optical and technical constraints. Here we demonstrate the fabrication and use of highly modular hollow structures created with tVAM to produce large scale tubular systems that allow the formation of complex, hollow networks beyond the build space of commercial tVAM devices. In many cases, it can reduce the overall dead volume used for printing by more than 50% compared to printing the whole structure at once. As proof of concept, we made a channel system recapitulating the physiological complexity of human vasculature in vitro. The system was tested with liquid flow dynamic and stent placement into stenosed segments to show that leaktight models could be created. Further, by using gelatin methacryloyl, a large-scale system out of seven single units could be created and effectively endothelialized, showing the potential of the approach for fabrication of physiological stent placement phantoms or vascular tissue models.
Related
- Mitotic centromeres organize in repeat-subunits with specialized histone landscape and multi-domain architecture as revealed by expansion microscopy
- The environmental stress σ subunits render M. tuberculosis RNA polymerase resistant to fidaxomicin by restricting its binding pocket conformational plasticity
- Phenotypic and Molecular Characterization of Winter Wheat Genotypes for Grain Yield, Quality Traits, and HMW Glutenin Subunits
- Heterotrimeric G proteins containing Gβ₁γ₂ subunits exhibit subtype-specific mobility differences in live cells
- MYC primes a paralog synthetic lethality involving the mitochondrial translocase subunits TIMM17A and TIMM17B and N-Acetylaspartate
BibTeX
@misc{bartolfkopp2026volumetric,
title = {{Volumetric building blocks: A simple and modular approach to create perfusable models via assembly of volumetrically printed subunits}},
author = {M. Bartolf-Kopp and I. Geroneit and C. Gergely and F. Moser and L. Galaba and N. Chicaiza-Cabezas and V. Priebe and M. Beaumont and T. Jungst},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.64898/2026.11.10.765611},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.11.10.765611v1},
note = {CC BY-NC},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Volumetric building blocks: A simple and modular approach to create perfusable models via assembly of volumetrically printed subunits
AU - M. Bartolf-Kopp
AU - I. Geroneit
AU - C. Gergely
AU - F. Moser
AU - L. Galaba
AU - N. Chicaiza-Cabezas
AU - V. Priebe
AU - M. Beaumont
AU - T. Jungst
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/10
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.11.10.765611
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.11.10.765611v1
AB - Tomographic volumetric additive manufacturing (tVAM) enables rapid 3D printing of constructs with intricate, freestanding geometries. Besides demonstrating very promising applications in tissue engineering and biofabrication, a limitation of the technology has been the relatively high material consumption and limited maximal model size due to optical and technical constraints. Here we demonstrate the fabrication and use of highly modular hollow structures created with tVAM to produce large scale tubular systems that allow the formation of complex, hollow networks beyond the build space of commercial tVAM devices. In many cases, it can reduce the overall dead volume used for printing by more than 50% compared to printing the whole structure at once. As proof of concept, we made a channel system recapitulating the physiological complexity of human vasculature in vitro. The system was tested with liquid flow dynamic and stent placement into stenosed segments to show that leaktight models could be created. Further, by using gelatin methacryloyl, a large-scale system out of seven single units could be created and effectively endothelialized, showing the potential of the approach for fabrication of physiological stent placement phantoms or vascular tissue models.
ER -