Solid freeform fabrication and its application to tissue engineering

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Scaffold fabrication for regenerating functional human tissues has an important role in tissue engineering, and there has been much progress in research on scaffold fabrication. However, current methods are limited by the mechanical properties of existing biodegradable materials and the irregular structures that they produce. Recently, Solid freeform fabrication (SFF) technology was remarked by fabricating 3D free-form micro-structures. Among SFF technologies, we tried to fabricate scaffolds using micro-stereolithography which contain the highest resolution of all SFF technologies and precision deposition system which can use various biomaterials. And we developed the CAD/CAM system to automate the process of scaffold fabrication and fabricate the patient customized scaffolds. These results showed the unlimited possibilities of our SFF technologies in tissue engineering.