Grant: CIHR Fellowship

An enormous clinical need exists for the development of technologies to facilitate the regeneration of injured or diseased tissues and organs. Tissue engineering involves mimicking the extracellular matrix (ECM) of a tissue or organ for clinical use, research and drug discovery. Generally, the production of 3D structures with complex geometries by printing is being applied in industry. This process can also be applied for the formation of 3D scaffolds of biological materials, tissues and organs. In 3D bio-printing, layer-by-layer precise positioning of biopolymers, bio-chemicals and living cells, with spatial control of the placement of functional components, is used to fabricate 3D functional living human constructs with structural, biological and mechanical properties that are very similar to those of native tissues. The overwhelming challenge in 3D bio-printing field is to ensure sufficient vascularization and innervation of the engineered construct, which are essential for the long-term viability of any bio-printed tissue construct. Currently such constructs often tend to be avascular, aneural, thin or hollow, and they are nourished by diffusion from a host vasculature. 3D bio-printing shows great promise for efficient generation of biomimetic tumor models with excellent reproducibility to further advance and accelerate cancer research. The objective of this research will be to design, fabricate 3D bio-printed living tissues, which will possess morphologically, mechanically, and biologically suitable properties to mimic the ECM of the native tissue with sufficient vascularisation and innervation within the 3D constructs. This will overcome clinical complications associated with the lack of donor organs, with testing of drug toxicity and with the modeling of cancerous tumors.