3D-printable materials for microbial liquid culture

Abstract

Additive manufacturing is providing the opportunity to easily fabricate complex structures for biological applications, such as growing microbial cultures. To best determine 3D-printable materials suitable for liquid microbial growth, culture tubes were printed that mimic the shape and dimensions of a standard commercial tube. Ten different printed materials were assessed in conjunction with multiple 3D printing platforms, and their performance to standard commercial polystyrene culture tubes was compared. In each test, a K-12 strain of the common laboratory bacterium Escherichia coli was monitored for growth over 24 h under normal conditions of temperature and agitation. Growth inhibition was observed for some printed materials, and mass spectrometry was used to identify two leached chemicals that inhibited bacterial growth. Based on this assessment, three of the materials are recommended for consideration in prototyping 3D-printed culture environments.