The increasing availability and decreasing costs of 3D printing and bioprinting technologies are expanding opportunities to meet medical needs. 3D Printing and Bioprinting for Pharmaceutical and Medical Applications discusses emerging approaches related to these game-changer technologies in such areas as drug development, medical devices, and bioreactors. Key Features • Offers an overview of applications, the market, and regulatory analysis. • Analyzes market research of 3D printing and bioprinting technologies. • Reviews 3D printing of novel pharmaceutical dosage forms for personalized therapies and for medical devices, as well as the benefits of 3D printing for training purposes. • Covers 3D bioprinting technology, including the design of polymers and decellularized matrices for bio-inks development, elaboration of 3D models for drug evaluation, and 3D bioprinting for musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, central nervous system, ocular, and skin applications. • Provides risk-benefit analysis of each application. • Highlights bioreactors, regulatory aspects, frontiers, and challenges. This book serves as an ideal reference for students, researchers, and professionals in materials science, bioengineering, the medical industry, and healthcare.

The advancement of science is ever more contingent upon the interaction of experts vast amount of scientific information being gathered every day that exceeds the ability of any one scientist to acquire. As an illustration of the frantic pace of scientific disc- more acute in the case of scientific fields at the interface of different and seemingly distant areas of study. Amidst these, the field of cell encapsulation brings together an array of diverse disciplines such as molecular biology and biopolymers, gene therapy and inorganic membranes, stem cell biology and physicochemistry, immunology and nanotechnology. Clearly, such range of topics is too broad for any individual scientist the state-of-the-art in the field of cell encapsulation. At the core of this technology, there is an interaction of physicochemical and biological elements forming three distinct layers of complexity. First, the chemistry of the biopolymer dictates the degree of protein adsorption, vascularization, tox- ity and biocompatibility of the microcapsules. Advances in biopolymer science are providing solutions to overcome existing challenges and to improve microcapsules as delivery vehicles. Second, the choice of cells, and more precisely the plethora of in determining the immune response elicited by the host to implanted microcapsules.