Grant: Research Tools and Instruments

Tissue engineering has been researched since the early 70s with mixed results. Early studies were limited by the lack of innovative biocompatible materials needed to generate new tissue. 3D bioprinting is a relatively new innovation which is already helping to overcome the limitations of conventional tissue engineering. 3D-bioprinting has opened the possibility of creating tissues and organs with unprecedented level of details, structure and biomimicry. Each bioprinting technique has different requirements for the bio-ink (a solution containing a mixture of biomaterials) that can create diverse effects on the encapsulated cells. Extrusion-based printing is the most commonly adopted technique, although it has the lowest reported cell survival among all techniques. The low survival is due to the shear stress induced by the printing process. It also presents several limitations regarding the spatial resolution and control of other parameters such as viscosity, multicellular and multilayer printing, as well as limited capability of custom-design complex patterns. In this proposal we are requesting a high-resolution 3D bioprinter system based on novel microfluidics, for developing advanced physiologically relevant tissue models. Microfluidic bioprinting technology, generates the printed fibre not by extruding through a needle but through so-called coaxial flow focusing, in which a stream of a liquid bio-ink is focused in a stream of a crosslinker fluid in a microfluidic printheads. This approach protects cells from shear stress while allowing precise control of several properties of the bio-inks and constructs designs. Microfluidics-based bioprinting enables the rapid printing of macro-scale 3D tissue structures that incorporate intricate micro-level details to generate architecturally and functionally accurate biological tissues. The requested equipment will directly support three multidisciplinary research programs at Carleton University, and train HQP within a unique, inclusive, and highly interdisciplinary scientific network. Due to the uniqueness of such instrument and the possibility of having it available in an academic environment, we envision a quick expansion of this network by establishing new collaborations, which will position us strategically to find answers to important scientific questions while enhancing Canadian innovation and presence in the burgeoning field of tissue engineering.