Dear Colleagues, 

3D printing rapidly improves current treatment modalities, including customized medical devices and ‘personalized medical solutions.’ As improvements in 3D printers and a growing portfolio of new materials develop, this will be leveraged to expand the impact and acceptance of 3D printed bioactive medical devices. 3D printing’s ability to make optimized and customized parts is precise and can facilitate new and novel biomedical and clinical applications. Fused depositional modeling (FDM) is an additive manufacturing technique that uses readily moldable materials such as thermopolymers. The ability to produce 3D printer filaments that incorporate a range of additives drives the innovation in FDM printing. Stereolithography is a photopolymerization-based 3D printing technology that involves the computer-driven assembly of constructs using microscale features. A computer model controls the spatial irradiation of liquid resin in producing the designed construct. Like thermopolymers in FDM, the liquid resin can also be modified with various additives that enhance durability, toughness and flexibility, rapid curing potential, self-healing ability, processability, and high-temperature stability. For example, 3D printing can print pills with complex structures that control the release rate, print pills on demand, combinatorial drug assemblies, and deliver a more accurate dosage. Fabrication methods must continue to evolve to achieve their promise of new and novel biomedical treatments.

This special issue will focus on advances in 3D printing bioactive medical devices, emphasizing functionalization directed towards specific diseases and disorders. Specifically, papers that address medical applications of 3D printing biomaterials and technologies, 3D printed biomaterials, the state-of-the-art developments in drug formulation.

Prof. Dr. David Mills
Guest Editor

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• 3D printing
• personalized medical
• readily moldable materials
• medical devices