Spatial-Selective Volumetric 4D Printing and Single-Photon Grafting of Biomolecules within Centimeter-Scale Hydrogels via Tomographic Manufacturing

Abstract

Conventional additive manufacturing and biofabrication techniques are unable to edit the chemicophysical properties of the printed object postprinting. Herein, a new approach is presented, leveraging light-based volumetric printing as a tool to spatially pattern any biomolecule of interest in custom-designed geometries even across large, centimeter-scale hydrogels. As biomaterial platform, a gelatin norbornene resin is developed with tunable mechanical properties suitable for tissue engineering applications. The resin can be volumetrically printed within seconds at high resolution (23.68 ± 10.75 µm). Thiol–ene click chemistry allows on-demand photografting of thiolated compounds postprinting, from small to large (bio)molecules (e.g., fluorescent dyes or growth factors). These molecules are covalently attached into printed structures using volumetric light projections, forming 3D geometries with high spatiotemporal control and ≈50 µm resolution. As a proof of concept, vascular endothelial growth factor is locally photografted into a bioprinted construct and demonstrated region-dependent enhanced adhesion and network formation of endothelial cells. This technology paves the way toward the precise spatiotemporal biofunctionalization and modification of the chemical composition of (bio)printed constructs to better guide cell behavior, build bioactive cue gradients. Moreover, it opens future possibilities for 4D printing to mimic the dynamic changes in morphogen presentation natively experienced in biological tissues.