Fig. 4: Bioprinting yeast-laden scaffold for ethanol fermentation.
From: Bioprinting microporous functional living materials from protein-based core-shell microgels
a Schematic of the fabrication of functional living scaffolds. Microbe-laden core-shell microgels are generated via droplets microfluidics and printed into annealed scaffolds that are used for bioprocessing, where the microbes act as the whole-cell biocatalyst to convert the substrate into product in the medium. b Micrographs of the core-shell microgels with varied sizes and non-core-shell microgels. c The size distribution of the core-shell microgels and non-core-shell microgels in b, n = 20 microgels in one experiment. d The volume ratio between the core and the shell phase for core-shell microgels. Core-shell microgels A have a similar overall size to B but have larger cores. Core-shell microgels B and C are different in overall size but they have the same core/shell ratio in order to maintain equivalent cell loadings for bioprinting, n = 20 microgels in one experiment, ****p < 1E-10, n.s. (not significant) = 0.74, unpaired two-tailed student’s t test. e The production of ethanol from yeast over 12 hours in oxygen-free environment, which is normalized by the scaffold weights, n = 3 independent biological experiments. Data are presented as mean values ± standard deviation and source data are provided as a Source Data file.
