3D bioprinting techniques offer the advantage of precisely controlling the microstructure of scaffolds used in tissue engineering and drug delivery. In biofabrication, they typically consist on printing bioinks (composed of natural or synthetic polymers) with cells to produce geometrically controlled engineered tissues.

The viscoelastic properties of the bioink often needs to be adjusted to ensure a good printability, shape fidelity and cell-friendly mechanical environment. Once printed, the final strength of the construct has to resemble the one of the specific application. Due to their soft nature and their geometrical complexity, mechanical characterization of such constructs is often challenging with conventional testing technologies.