---
title: "Rousselot enables new bioprinting possibilities through ENLIGHT project"
url: https://www.voxelmatters.com/rousselot-new-bioprinting-possibilities-enlight-project/
date: 2026-03-26
modified: 2026-03-26
lang: en
author: "Benedict O'Neill"
description: "Collagen biomaterials specialist Rousselot, a company with a global presence and more than 130 years of expertise, is continuing to provide gelatin-based biomaterials used by experts in 3D bioprinting, regenerative..."
categories:
  - "Bioinks"
  - "Bioprinting"
  - "Medical Research"
  - "Sponsored"
tags:
  - "Featured"
image: https://www.voxelmatters.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/X-Pure-GelMA-vial-photo.jpg
word_count: 585
---

# Rousselot enables new bioprinting possibilities through ENLIGHT project

Collagen biomaterials specialist [Rousselot](https://www.voxelmatters.directory/company/rousselot/), a company with a global presence and more than 130 years of expertise, is continuing to provide gelatin-based biomaterials used by experts in 3D bioprinting, regenerative medicine and pharmaceutical research.

Back in March 2025, VoxelMatters spoke to Jos Olijve, Senior Project Manager at Rousselot, about the progress of the EU-backed ENLIGHT, a multidisciplinary group project working to [bioprint a functional pancreas model](https://www.voxelmatters.com/optimizing-gelatin-hydrogels-for-volumetric-3d-bioprinting/) to accelerate diabetes drug discovery.

Besides Rousselot, other organizations contributing to the ambitious project included UMC Utrecht, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, ETH Zürich, the University of Naples Federico II, AstraZeneca, Fondazione Giannino Bassetti and bioprinting company [Readily3D](https://www.voxelmatters.directory/company/readily3d/).

Olijve explained that the goal of the project was to make a bioprinted functional pancreas containing cells using volumetric bioprinting. Rousselot’s contribution was to develop a hydrogel with tunable mechanical properties to create an endocrine pancreatic microenvironment containing encapsulated pancreatic islets—the ultimate goal being the development of a functional pancreatic model using a patient’s own induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs).

An essential part of the project was the differentiation of human derived iPSCs into pancreatic  islet cells that are able to secrete insulin. 

“This bioprinted pancreas tissue could then be used to improve and accelerate drug development, to eliminate animal testing and, if it is functional in the body, the bioprinted pancreas could in the future be used as a cell therapy product for producing insulin in the body,” Olijve said. “But the primary objective of the project is to make an organ-on-a-chip system for drug testing, which pharma companies can use to test their drugs.”

ENLIGHT was brought to a close at the end of April 2025. According to the EU’s [Community Research and Development Information Service](https://cordis.europa.eu/article/id/460574-bioprinting-at-the-speed-of-light) (CORDIS), participants in the project “will continue to refine their printed models and explore their use for gene therapy testing, another area where current models fall short.”

[![Rousselot enables new bioprinting possibilities through ENLIGHT project](https://www.voxelmatters.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Roux-graph-abstract.jpg)](https://www.voxelmatters.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Roux-graph-abstract.jpg)

## ENLIGHT concludes with promising results

By bringing together specialists from a number of diverse fields, the ENLIGHT project made significant progress in its goal of developing an organ-on-a-chip for diabetes drug research.

At the conclusion of the four-year undertaking, project coordinator Riccardo Levato explained that the group was able to “print centimeter-sized tissues in just 10 seconds, using a light-based process that is exceptionally gentle on cells,” adding that they had “screened different anti-diabetic drugs, as well as molecules that could cause toxicity in the pancreas.”

In February 2025, a group of researchers—including Rousselot’s Olijve and Thomas Van Gansbeke and UMC Utrecht’s Levato, Davide Ribezzi and Jan‐Philip Zegwaart—published a [paper](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11962684/) in *Advanced Materials* on their research into volumetric bioprinting of cell-laden hydrogel constructs.

In the study, the researchers engineered a number of hydrogels varying in molecular weight and degree of modification (methacrylation).

The key process used during the research was Embedded extrusion Volumetric Printing (EmVP), which combines suspended bath bioprinting and volumetric bioprinting to provide greater geometrical flexibility, using photo-crosslinkable microgels as the printing material.

The researchers’ work produced a “library” of gelatins and GelMA variants, including a single-component suspension medium that could support extrusion inside a volumetric printing bath. This was achieved without temperature control, remaining stable for several hours.

Using their novel approach, the ENLIGHT researchers successfully bioprinted pancreatic cell-laden gels that remained viable over 21 days of culture.

The success of the ENLIGHT project demonstrates how Rousselot’s biomaterials can be deployed in cutting-edge biomedical research, helping to advance drug screening and regenerative medicine. The company’s purified gelatins include three products in the X-Pure range, in addition to clinical-grade, endotoxin-controlled gelatins in the Quali-Pure range.