Rousselot Concludes EU-Backed ENLIGHT Project to Advance Volumetric Bioprinting for Diabetes Research. The four-year ENLIGHT project, led by UMC Utrecht’s Riccardo Levato and involving partners including Rousselot, Readily3D, and AstraZeneca, concluded in April 2025 with the development of a functional pancreatic model. The research utilized Embedded Extrusion Volumetric Printing (EmVP) to print centimeter-sized, cell-laden hydrogel constructs in 10 seconds. Rousselot contributed by developing a library of tunable, photo-crosslinkable gelatin-based hydrogels, specifically GelMA variants, to create an endocrine pancreatic microenvironment capable of maintaining cell viability for 21 days.

This project addresses the critical need for human-relevant, organ-on-a-chip systems to replace animal testing in pharmaceutical drug screening. By combining volumetric bioprinting with specialized gelatin materials, the team achieved high-speed, gentle cell encapsulation that traditional extrusion-based bioprinting cannot match. As the bioprinting market shifts toward functional tissue models, the ability to provide clinical-grade, endotoxin-controlled materials like Rousselot’s X-Pure and Quali-Pure ranges becomes a key differentiator for material suppliers. The successful integration of these materials into high-speed light-based processes highlights the growing importance of material-hardware co-development in the bio-fabrication sector.

For the additive manufacturing sector, the ENLIGHT project proves that gelatin-based hydrogels can support complex, high-speed volumetric printing without requiring active temperature control. Future commercialization efforts must focus on scaling the production of these specialized GelMA variants to meet the demands of pharmaceutical labs. Users should evaluate these hydrogel libraries for their specific crosslinking kinetics and mechanical stability when transitioning from research-scale models to standardized drug testing platforms.