Grants and Contributions:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year (2017-2018 to 2018-2019).

The demand for organ repair and transplantation, and a shortage of available donors necessitates the clinicalx000D
need to develop innovative treatment strategies for long-term repair and regeneration of injured or diseasedx000D
tissues and organs. 3D printing is a process used to construct 3D objects by relying on the layer-by-layerx000D
deposition of materials onto a computer-controlled build platform. Bioprinting combines 3D printingx000D
technology, cell biology, and materials science, by coupling the build platform with a device that enables thex000D
deposition of bioinks. Bioprinting technology is adaptive to a wide range of biomaterials (i.e., synthetic andx000D
natural polymers, blood-derived proteins, and de-cellularized extracellular matrix (ECM)), accommodating thex000D
growth and proliferation of various cell sources, including stem cells and somatic cells. Aspect Biosystems'x000D
proprietary Lab-on-PrinterTM technology utilizes the concept of coaxial-flow focusing to deposit cell-ladenx000D
biological fibers layer-by-layer and form 3D tissue-like constructs. Aspect Biosystems is planning to extendx000D
their Bioink library to include photo-crosslinkable materials including gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) andx000D
polyethylene glycol diacrylate (PEGDA). Lab-on- a-PrinterTM technology is compatible with a range of lowx000D
and medium viscosity Bioinks that are particularly well suited to promoting tissue function due to ax000D
combination of favorable mechanical properties and high ratios of bioactive and cellular content to scaffoldx000D
components. Using these materials can significantly improve the printing resolution which will lead to betterx000D
control on the micro- and macrostructure of the fabricated scaffolds. The overarching goals of this Engagex000D
project are to modify the current printhead cartridges to print photo-crosslinkable gelatin as a widely usedx000D
biomaterial in the tissue engineering community. We will perform a systematic characterization study tox000D
develop a protocol for the fabrication of photo-crosslinkable hydrogel constructs. Cells will be loaded in thex000D
fabricated constructs to evaluate the biocompatibility of the process.