South Korean manufacturer CARIMATEC introduced its DLP-based bioprinting system at Formnext 2025, that prints living cells directly onto glass slides using a freeze-dried bioink capsule.
Called ZENESIS, the system is aimed at research environments such as university hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and cosmetic laboratories. As the manufacturer puts it, the printer maintains cell viability above 90% during operation and reaches printing speeds above 300 samples per minute, which CARIMATEC reports as a 144× increase over manual procedures.
“Our technology enables Bioinks not only to physically adhere, but also to chemically bond on the glass surfaces, resulting in strong adhesion despite the transparent and slippery surface of glass slides,” explains Dr. Jeong-Wook Seo from CARIMATEC.
Solving adhesion limits in bioprinting
A central element of the platform is a glass slide that has been engineered to support both physical and chemical bonding with printed biological material. This is intended to address a common issue in bioprinting, where smooth laboratory glass does not naturally hold hydrogel-based inks.
By resolving this barrier, the printer can work with any resin formulated for its DLP system, allowing experiments to be planned around biological needs rather than the limitations of the substrate. The company lists a 50 μm resolution and the use of a pressure-free deposition method, the latter chosen to reduce mechanical stress on cells.
Now users can interact with the system through the Carima Slicer V2 software, which provides a layout of well positions on commercial slide designs and identifies available locations for printed samples. The software also estimates the required cell density before printing begins, which is intended to help laboratories avoid errors when preparing small or expensive cell populations.
In parallel with the hardware, CARIMATEC introduced a freeze-dried bioink capsule known as EZ-preBioink. The capsule contains gelatin methacryloyl, a LAP photoinitiator and a tartrazine photoabsorber, and is mixed with 3 ml of the user’s culture medium to prepare a printable hydrogel.
According to the manufacturer, the lyophilized format avoids the instability seen in many liquid formulations and has been tested with a range of tissue models such as cancer, stem cell, muscle, cartilage, brain and salivary gland organoids.
CARIMATEC describes the technology as applicable to drug screening, organ-on-chip systems, microvascular models, microneedle fabrication and scaffolds for cell-cultured meat. The company estimates that automation could reduce labor requirements for organoid production by about 20%.
With its appearance at Formnext, CARIMATEC aims to target the platform to pharmaceutical and academic groups seeking methods that support higher-volume and more standardized 3D cell culture work.
Milestones in bioprinting research
Bioprinting is a growing technology in the medical research sector and is being leveraged to improve patient outcomes. This includes the fabrication of personalized breast implants, functional human tissue, FDA-cleared medication, and ongoing attempts to 3D print organs.
In 2019, bioprinting technology company Aspect Biosystems partnered with Maastricht University to advance bioprinted kidney tissue by installing its RX1 microfluidic bioprinter in the Moroni Lab at the MERLN Institute.
The RX1’s Lab-on-a-Printer system enabled controlled layering of multiple bioinks and cell types through microchannel printheads, while MERLN contributed newly developed kidney-supportive bioinks and expertise in extrusion, droplet-on-demand, and microfluidic bioprinting. Led by Dr. Carlos Mota, the project drew on MERLN’s three years of kidney research to improve cell viability and tissue complexity, and Aspect retained the option to further develop and commercialize any resulting technologies.
Another notable example from 2023 saw five Belgian companies and research institutes worked together to 3D print an artificial heart and circulatory system that were planned for launch to the International Space Station this year.
Through the AstroCardia project, the team aimed to use the heart’s time in orbit to investigate how cardiac tissue ages, taking advantage of the fact that the organ’s ageing process accelerates by a factor of 20 in zero-gravity conditions.
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Featured image shows bioprinted organoid structures created with the ZENESIS system. Photo via CARIMATEC.
