Multi-scale in silico and ex silico mechanics of 3D printed cochlear implants for local drug delivery

The currently available treatments for inner ear disorders often involve systemic drug administration, leading to suboptimal drug concentrations and side effects. Cochlear implants offer a potential solution by providing localized and sustained drug delivery to the cochlea. While the mechanical characterization of both the implants and their...

High-Precision 3D Printing of Microporous Cochlear Implants for Personalized Local Drug Delivery

Hearing loss is a highly prevalent multifactorial disorder affecting 20% of the global population. Current treatments using the systemic administration of drugs are therapeutically ineffective due to the anatomy of the cochlea and the existing blood–labyrinth barrier. Local drug delivery systems can ensure therapeutic drug concentrations locally...

Micro-Vessels-Like 3D Scaffolds for Studying the Proton Radiobiology of Glioblastoma-Endothelial Cells Co-Culture Models

Glioblastoma (GBM) is a devastating cancer of the brain with an extremely poor prognosis. While X-ray radiotherapy and chemotherapy remain the current standard, proton beam therapy is an appealing alternative as protons can damage cancer cells while sparing the surrounding healthy tissue. However, the effects of protons on in vitro GBM models...

Two-Photon Polymerization of 2.5D and 3D Microstructures Fostering a Ramified Resting Phenotype in Primary Microglia

Microglia are the resident macrophages of the central nervous system and contribute to maintaining brain’s homeostasis. Current 2D “petri-dish” in vitro cell culturing platforms employed for microglia, are unrepresentative of the softness or topography of native brain tissue. This often contributes to changes in microglial morphology, exhibiting...

Evaluation of Proton-Induced DNA Damage in 3D-Engineered Glioblastoma Microenvironments

Glioblastoma (GBM) is a devastating cancer of the brain with an extremely poor prognosis. For this reason, besides clinical and preclinical studies, novel in vitro models for the assessment of cancer response to drugs and radiation are being developed. In such context, three-dimensional (3D)-engineered cellular microenvironments, compared to...

Cellular Interaction of Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells with Polymer and Hydrogel 3D Microscaffold Templates

Biomimicking biological niches of healthy tissues or tumors can be achieved by means of artificial microenvironments, where structural and mechanical properties are crucial parameters to promote tissue formation and recreate natural conditions. In this work, three-dimensional (3D) scaffolds based on woodpile structures were fabricated by two...

Submicron patterns-on-a-chip: Fabrication of a microfluidic device incorporating 3D printed surface ornaments

Manufacturing high throughput in vitro models resembling the tissue microenvironment is highly demanded for studying bone regeneration. Tissues such as bone have complex multiscale architectures inside which cells reside. To this end, engineering a microfluidic platform incorporated with three-dimensional (3D) microscaffolds and submicron...