Bioprinting as a Sociotechnical Project: Imaginaries, Promises and Futures

Abstract

ABSTRACT Bioprinting or the production of biological objects using additive manufacturing from a digital blueprint illustrates how sociotechnical imaginaries work within the paradigm of bio-innovation. This technology represents the near realization of the machine-based ideal attained by technologizing biological systems. The deployment of bioprinting establishes a powerful sociotechnical imaginary associated with this technology giving rise to a particular conception of the future. Interviews conducted with researchers working in a French start-up specialized on printing human skin revealed two types of futures built into the bioprinting imaginary: the indeterminate and uncertain future of tissues and organs for regenerative and personalized medicine; and the more achievable and profitable future of in vitro tissue models used by the pharmaceutical industry for drug screening. As part of this temporal landscape, bioprinting researchers struggle with issues such as the imperatives of the innovation model, technical challenges, media hype and their personal expectations. The concrete materialization of the bioprinting sociotechnical imaginary presents itself when researchers are directly confronted with the expectations of patients in search of treatments. These encounters provide an opportunity for researchers to reflect upon the ambiguous nature of their participation in the promissory economy and the construction of projected futures within the bioprinting imaginary.