10th ibiTea on March 12, 2024: This event took place in the past, the registration is closed.
Bioprinting and Tissue Engineering
Presented by Andreas Blaeser, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany and
Bastian Kreidl, Hochschule München, Germany
ibiTea Topic Outline
3D-Bioprinting Meets Microfluidics – A Versatile Approach for the Automated Bioproduction of Vascularized Organ-on-a-Chip Systems
Our first speaker, Andreas Blaeser, will discuss new organ-on-a-chip systems as an alternative to animal experiments.
Organ-on-a-chip systems (OOCs) are in vitro tissue models of complex organs, such as the heart, liver, or kidney, which can be cultivated dynamically on microfluidic carriers. In contrast to animal experiments, OOCs allow new active substances or toxins to be tested on humanized samples. This improves the clinical translation of obtained research results. In addition, OOCs represent a sustainable alternative to animal experiments. Furthermore, they can be personalized to enable tailored patient therapy.
However, due to the labor intensive biofabrication of OOCs, their industrial use is still limited. To overcome these hurdles, the group merges 3D-bioprinting technology and laboratory robotics to enable a fully automated OOC bioproduction process and thereby increase their industrial applicability.
Formation of three millimeter wide vascular beds on microfluidic chips following 3D-bioprinting of fibrin-embedded HUVECs (CD31 staining, red) and dermal fibroblasts.
Andreas Blaeser is a Professor of "BioMedical Printing Technology" at the Technische Universität Darmstadt and Head of the Institute for Printing Science and Technology (IDD). He conducts research in the field of biofabrication, production, and joining technology of biologized functional materials. The work of his interdisciplinary research institute provides the basis for the future production of bioartificial tissues, "feeling" robotics, and renewable semi-finished products. These can be used, for example, as implants in regenerative medicine, as sensor-integrated in vitro models for drug and toxicity studies, as artificial skin for soft robotics elements, or as sustainable, bioartificial consumer goods (e.g. cultured meat).
Femtosecond Bioprinting of Microorganisms
Our second speaker, Bastian Kreidl, will present Femtosecond Bioprinting, a recently developed bioprinting technique.
Femtosecond Bioprinting (FsB) is a laser-assisted printing technique, originated from Laser Induced Forward Transfer (LIFT). It enables the precise deposition of various generic biomaterials and the selection, isolation, and transfer of microorganisms while maintaining high survival rates of up to 98.5%.
In FsB, near-infrared femtosecond laser pulses are tightly focused into a non-/weakly absorbing bioink. This leads to a series of events, generating a thin laminar bioink jet propagating towards a target substrate. Coupled with controllable XYZ-stages, this enables the creation of bioink and/or microorganism patterns, even down to single cell resolution.
Figure A: Time resolved shadowgraphy image of bioink (Histopaque 1083) jet development, approximately 20 µs after laser pulse impact, B: Pattern of bioink (Histopaque 1083) droplets on target substrate (borosilicate), scalebar is 200 µm.
Bastian Kreidl studied Bioengineering in Mechatronics at Hochschule München. He is currently working on his PhD at the Laser Centre / Centre for Applied Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (CANTER), focusing on new and groundbreaking approaches for future bioprinting techniques.
