Renegade, the 900$ Open Source Bioprinter from Ourbotics

Ourbotics has planned a 3D bioprinter at the price of only 900$ and it should be an open source device.

For several years now, 3D bioprinting is available but at the beginning the costs for a single printer were about 100.000$. Because of the high costs only a few laboratories could afford such a high-tech device. Due this fact, only limited research could be done and not all possibilities of this technique can be developed. A new generation of cheaper 3D bioprinters has been available for sale in the last few months, with models like the BioBot1 or the INKREDIBLE. This new devices are a lot cheaper than the first bioprinters, they cost from 5.000 to 15.000$. Bioprinters are characterised by their ability to print paste and gel-like materials through a syringe to form 3D structures. This technique makes printing biological materials a lot more complex than 3D printing plastics.

The Irish startup Ourobotics has recently planned to develop a bioprinter and sell it for approximately 900$. The special character of this device is that it will be open source. With this step Ourobotics wants to revolutionise the sector of 3D printing. It should be possible for every laboratory to build their own 3D bioprinter with the Renegade as an example. But you shouldn’t consider the Renegade as a printer that can build organs or parts of a body in your garage. It’s just to build basic organic structures with a simple technique at a low price. The startup has not announced when the Renegade will be available for sale.

Currently, Ourbotics offers a professional bioprinter that could print up to 10 different materials. The price for this device is about 12.500€ and it can be ordered through the company’s website.