Posted on July 16th, 2025

A team of biomedical researchers at Stony Brook University’s Renaissance School of Medicine, led by Dr. Michael Mak, has introduced TRACE (Tunable Rapid Assembly of Collagenous Elements), a novel bioprinting platform that overcomes longstanding challenges in printing natural physiological materials. Unlike previous methods, TRACE enables the direct incorporation of living cells into complex, user-designed tissue and organ structures by using the body’s own building blocks—particularly collagen Type I—as bioinks in a highly biocompatible format.

At the heart of TRACE is a macromolecular crowding approach that dramatically accelerates collagen gelation, allowing rapid and precise 3D patterning. By using an inert crowding agent to speed up collagen assembly, the team can fabricate tissues composed entirely of physiological elements, ensuring that printed constructs closely mimic native tissue architecture and function.

Using TRACE, the researchers have already demonstrated the creation of functional “mini organs,” such as engineered heart chambers, and anticipate broad applications in drug development, disease modeling, and regenerative medicine. The ability to print living tissues with both structural complexity and biofunctionality opens new avenues for translational research and potential clinical therapies.

The detailed methodology and results are described in the paper “Instant Assembly of Collagen for Tissue Engineering and Bioprinting,” published in Nature Materials. By establishing a versatile biofabrication platform, this work significantly expands the possibilities for controllable, multiscale bioprinting across various organ systems.