A Promethean Construct: Formulation of a bioink with human donor-derived liver dECM & liver organoids

Liver diseases account for two million deaths worldwide each year, and current treatments are limited. 3D bioprinting is a promising technology, that has recently been investigated to tackle this challenge. However, the cells and hydrogels used for bioprinting are not human-derived and do not replicate the natural <i>in vivo</i> environment. The...

Swelling-Dependent Shape-Based Transformation of a Human Mesenchymal Stromal Cells-Laden 4D Bioprinted Construct for Cartilage Tissue Engineering

3D bioprinting is usually implemented on flat surfaces, posing serious limitations in the fabrication of multilayered curved constructs. 4D bioprinting, combining 3D bioprinting with time-dependent stimuli-induced transformation, enables the fabrication of shape-changing constructs. Here, a 4D biofabrication method is reported for cartilage...

A multi-axis robot-based bioprinting system supporting natural cell function preservation and cardiac tissue fabrication

Despite the recent advances in artificial tissue and organ engineering, how to generate large size viable and functional complex organs still remains as a grand challenge for regenerative medicine. Three-dimensional bioprinting has demonstrated its advantages as one of the major methods in fabricating simple tissues, yet it still faces...

4D bioprinting for cartilage tissue engineering: a controlled shape transformation approach

Cartilage degeneration is a major cause of chronic disability and its treatment usually involves highly invasive procedures. To address this issue, three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting was introduced as a promising tissue engineering approach. However, the structures fabricated with this method are static and lack the dynamic response of native...

The Development of a Cartilage Specific Bioink for Three-Dimensional Bioprinting

Bioprinting is a promising technique that has the ability to generate complex tissue structures for articular cartilage (AC) repair and regeneration. However, most biomaterials used for bioprinting are incapable of representing the complexity of native extracellular matrix (ECM). In this study, a novel cartilage specific bioink has been...

4D Bioprinting: Temporal Stiffening of Mesenchymal Stem Cell-Laden Hyaluronic Acid-Alginate Scaffolds for Cartilage Constructs

Three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting studies the initial condition of printed constructs, which makes construct static, and neglects the dynamic changes in natural tissue conformation during tissue repair, disease progression and regeneration processes. Therefore, the concept of four-dimensional (4D) bioprinting has been introduced that allows for...

Biological Production of Spatially Organized Functional Materials

Catastrophic breakage of a material might bring severe accidents in aerospace engineering, construction, and transportation field. Therefore, engineering material with high toughness values is very important for these special applications. Many biological materials in nature, such as nacre, silk, and wood, possess high toughness values because...

3D printing living materials: Optimizing the longevity and photosynthetic ability of microalgae structures

This graduation report aimed to improve the mechanical properties of a sustainable 3D print material made of microalgae, in order to create an macro-porous 3D structure with enhanced longevity and photosynthetic activity. This research builds upon the alginate based bio-ink from Balasubramanian et al (2021). Their material proposal lacked...

Bioprinting of a Zonal-Specific Cell Density Scaffold: A Biomimetic Approach for Cartilage Tissue Engineering

The treatment of articular cartilage defects remains a significant clinical challenge. This is partially due to current tissue engineering strategies failing to recapitulate native organization. Articular cartilage is a graded tissue with three layers exhibiting different cell densities: the superficial zone having the highest density and the...

Emergent Biological Endurance Depends on Extracellular Matrix Composition of Three-Dimensionally Printed Escherichia coli Biofilms

Biofilms are three-dimensional (3D) bacterial communities that exhibit a highly self-organized nature in terms of their composition and complex architecture. Bacteria in biofilms display emergent biological properties, such as resistance to antimicrobials and disinfectants that the individual planktonic cells lack. Bacterial biofilms possess...

Tuning the Nanotopography and Chemical Functionality of 3D Printed Scaffolds through Cellulose Nanocrystal Coatings

In nature, cells exist in three-dimensional (3D) microenvironments with topography, stiffness, surface chemistry, and biological factors that strongly dictate their phenotype and behavior. The cellular microenvironment is an organized structure or scaffold that, together with the cells that live within it, make up living tissue. To mimic...

Bioprinting of Zonal Cartilage Scaffolds Using Different Cell Densities: A biomimetic approach on cartilage regeneration

The use of allografts for the treatment of critical size cartilage defects holds disadvantages including the limited number of donors and the compromised chondrocyte viability. These limitations have prompted researchers to explore different options, such as cartilage engineering. Bioprinting, a promising tissue engineering technique, could be...

Imitating nature to produce nacre-inspired composite materials with bacteria

In this study, a method for the bacterial production of a nacre-mimicking composite material was developed. Nacre (mother-of-pearl) is an organic-inorganic composite found in the inner lining of many mollusk shells and in pearls. It has a brick-and-mortar structure consisting of 95% aragonite (calcium carbonate) platelets and 5% organic matrix....

3D Printing for the Fabrication of Biofilm-Based Functional Living Materials

Bacterial biofilms are three-dimensional networks of cells entangled in a self-generated extracellular polymeric matrix composed of proteins, lipids, polysaccharides, and nucleic acids. Biofilms can establish themselves on virtually any accessible surface and lead to varying impacts ranging from infectious diseases to degradation of toxic...

Printing of Patterned, Engineered E. coli Biofilms with a Low-Cost 3D Printer

Biofilms can grow on virtually any surface available, with impacts ranging from endangering the lives of patients to degrading unwanted water contaminants. Biofilm research is challenging due to the high degree of biofilm heterogeneity. A method for the production of standardized, reproducible, and patterned biofilm-inspired materials could...