A team of researchers from Penn State University, with the support from National Institutes of Health (NIH), have developed a method called 3D near-field electrospinning, or 3DNFES that combines 3D printing and electrospinning, which uses an electric charge to spin nanometer threads from a polymer solution or melt. This new method can be used to place single micrometer-scale fibers, on several different substrates, in a predefined spatial organization, and therefore create framework scaffolds for living tissue.