Fig. 7

Outlook for cell-driven and shape-changing 3D structures. To expand our approach beyond the microbeam, we created sheets made from cells and collagen-1, finding that they too exhibited a buckling instability (bottom row). Confocal micrographs show a flat sheet immediately after printing (left) and a buckled sheet 24 h after printing (middle; right image stretched 3× vertically to accentuate undulations. Scale bar: 500 μm). We hope to one day create 3D versions of textbook-level models of developing tissues from multiple cell types. We demonstrate the readiness of the fabrication technique by printing static models of a neural crest tube at different stages of development, made of microspheres that fluoresce in three different colors. Confocal micrographs show the four structures, all made from three different materials (Scale bar: 2 mm; See Supplementary Information on 3D printed neural crest model)