Laser-assisted bioprinting makes it possible to print cell by cell according to the following physical mechanism. The focusing of a laser pulse (in blue) on a cartridge (composed of an ink film spread on a glass plate) results in the formation of an ink jet towards a substrate on which cell microdroplets are collected. By controlling the physical conditions of the ejection (energy, viscosity…), the volume of the droplets is controlled precisely (~ picoliter).
The cell patterns are obtained by rapid scanning of the cartridge by the laser, which results in the formation of 10,000 droplets per second.