Bioprinting Facility
Point of contact
Daniel Sorby, MS
Manager
sorby009@umn.edu
Lab location
Dwan Variety Club Cardiovascular Research Center Building
Room 269
Mailing address
425 East River Parkway
Room 620, MMC 366
Minneapolis, MN 55455
The University of Minnesota’s Bioprinting Facility studies human cell viability, proliferation, migration, and differentiation, as well as tissue morphogenesis, in three-dimensionally printed tissue constructs.
We synthesize synthetic and natural biomaterials for use as “inks” in our bioprinting projects, including decellularized extracellular matrix solutions. We employ a variety of bioprinting techniques and hydrogel crosslinking methods.
We believe the field of bioprinting has the future potential of allowing researchers to synthesize functional human tissues and organs from allotransplanted or xenotransplanted mammalian extracellular matrix components and autologous cells. Biomedical research labs around the world are working towards this common goal, but as with any new field or technology, the fundamentals are still being optimized. Bioprinting relies on the collaboration of many scientific disciplines, including human anatomy and physiology, cell biology, tissue engineering, biomaterials science, mechanical engineering, robotics, coding, and polymer chemistry. The University of Minnesota’s Bioprinting Facility relies on all of these disciplines to create physiologically-relevant tissue constructs for applicable human cell studies.
Faculty, staff and students
Dr. Angela Panoskaltsis-Mortari, PhD, D(ABMLI)
Facility Director
Fanben Meng, PhD
Materials Science Postdoc
Haylie Helms
Undergraduate Biology Student
Daniel Sorby, MS
Facility Manager
Zachary Galliger
Biomedical Engineering PhD Student
Carolyn Meyer
Tissue Engineering Lab Manager
Ifeolu Akinnola
MSTP Student 
Dr. Steven Skolasinski, MD
Pulmonary Fellow
Bioprinters
BioBots 1 and BetaBot
Custom-Built Pneumatic Soft-Material Extrusion Bioprinter with Laser Assistance
Inkredible+
Ultimaker 2 Extended+ Alteration (for PCL and Hydrogel Extrusion)
In addition, the University of Minnesota Bioprinting Facility has been accepted into the Aether 1 Beta Program and will receive one of the first beta prototypes.
The University has partnered with industry leaders in robotics and is currently custom-building a laser-assisted bioprinter.
Research collaboration
If you would like the opportunity to collaborate with our facility, please contact the manager, Daniel Sorby, at sorby009@umn.edu. If your print plan is plausible with our current infrastructure, we will set a meeting to discuss logistics. Priority will be given to University of Minnesota laboratories.
Bioprinter build collaboration
We are also willing to collaborate with labs that have experience in robotics engineering, electrical engineering, electronics, electrospinning, thermoelectric devices, computer engineering, or mechanical engineering in order to build custom bioprinters.