Out of curiosity, do you think this technology could be used for tattoos? I've never used a 3d printer so I don't know all the technical details, but it seems like it would be possible to provide a 3d image of your arm and have the syringe create a tattoo one poke at a time.
Here's an article with pictures of their 3d printer[0]. The TL;DR is that they mounted a syringe pump on a 3d printer.
Aside from that, I'm curious as to what advantages aside from being cheap this printing process has over inkjetting. We can already use piezoelectric inkjets to spray hydrogel and in fact inkjet based Connex 3d printer use a gel as support material. A quick google search also reveals that gels with a similar composition(PEGDA) to this support material have been used in tissue culture research.
Honestly, I think we could be making a lot more progress in bioprinting if someone could make an open source kit for driving and mounting piezoelectric inkjet heads from 2d printers on a hobbyist grade 3d printer. In fact open source inkjet 3d printers have already been made[2], but no one has made a kit for making them. Although this might not be possible due to patents on inkjet drive circuitry.
i'd think that there would be difference in mechanical (and may be thermoelectric) stress that cells (or protein solution, etc.) is getting subjected to when applied by piezoelectric inkjet head. Piezoelectric inkjet head application though should be more precise probably.
With regard to extruder printers like MakerBot - putting the cell culture right into the extruder head and letting the filament serve as the pusher may just work without using syringe, etc..
