Biofabrication should be sustainable

Fabricating structures using living cells, otherwise known as biofabrication, has long been a subject of fascination for researchers. The term emerged from biomedicine, where 3D printing of organs is widely researched for its potential in the medical treatment of severe human pathologies.

Today, we can assemble living cells from mammals to rebuild pieces of tissue in the lab to study biology, to replace parts of the human body that have been damaged and to test drugs. We can also make animal tissue that we can eat (such as in vitro meat), use cells to detect substances, clean contaminated environments and employ bacteria to close cracks in walls. We can even use cells to build microrobots that nimbly navigate complex environments or to study the motion of living beings without relying on animal experimentation. ^2,3

Intriguingly, living cells are made of soft, biodegradable components and can autonomously replicate themselves. They extract energy from glucose and other eco-friendly fuels, function silently and with a high degree of energetic efficiency. Thus, borrowing cells from nature is not just a leap forward in technology but a step towards a more environmentally friendly future, as the resulting bio-hybrid systems can perform tasks more efficiently and sustainably than their purely synthetic counterparts.

However, the way in which we produce bio-hybrid systems in the lab generally involves a lot of trial and error, which is resource-, energy- and labour-intensive. To engineer a tissue, we need to use expensive materials and technologies and to precisely control the environmental conditions that allow the cells to survive. Conventional biofabrication approaches generate a lot of waste and use a huge amount of energy. To unlock the sustainability potential of living materials, we should rethink the way we “biofabricate” by designing more ecologically intelligent productive processes.⁵

From trial and error to prediction

To make biofabrication sustainable, we should refine production processes to make them as effective as possible. Selecting sustainable component materials and applying high-precision, automated fabrication methods can help us limit the amount of resources consumed, waste generated and energy used.

The most efficient approach to making biofabrication green is to select successful protocols before embarking on any activity in the lab. This is where computer simulation can really help. By modeling complex biosystems, we aim to predict the outcome of biofabrication processes a priori and identify a winning strategy to make artificial tissue with the desired properties in a few iterations or even at the first attempt. Machine learning will play a crucial role in handling the difficult simulation of biological complexity. The models obtained will reveal the optimal conditions for successful biofabrication.

Shifting from a process of trial and error to computationally target-optimised approaches is the key to minimising resource and energy consumption and to creating biosystems that meet pre-defined needs in an efficient and scalable manner. ⁵

My vision for the future

If we manage to use in silico prediction to guide the design and production of biofabricated systems, we can imagine a bio-hybrid future in which buildings can repair themselves, adaptive robots can sense and respond to a complex environment and medical implants can integrate seamlessly with the body — all created through sustainable biofabrication processes.

I believe that by harnessing the power of living materials and using advanced computational techniques, we can responsibly create bio-hybrid systems for a more sustainable and resilient world and enhance the quality of human life while reducing our environmental footprint.

We as researchers in the field of biofabrication should respect nature given that it is the very source of the unique living material we are working with.