Project
3D-printing of hydrogels for tissue engineering applications
Bone disorders reduce the quality of life of patients, since they lead
to pain, limited functionality and discomfort. The occurrence of these
injuries is related to age, trauma and lifestyle. However, current
treatments suffer from high failure rates and in most cases donor
tissue is needed. In addition, the “one-size-fits-all” medicine is
evolving to personalized medicine, since the response to treatments
varies for each person. Recent advances in tissue engineering and
regenerative medicine show the potential to fabricate scaffolds which
can be exploited in cell culturing applications for investigations in
personalized medicine. Nevertheless, the upscaling and
reproducibility of the scaffolds using classic fabrication techniques,
such as freeze-drying and solvent casting, remains a challenge.
Besides, these methods fail to deliver the desired control over
porosity and internal architecture of the scaffolds. Hence, this project
aims at developing a novel manufacturing process for biomimetic
scaffolds from collagen inks using Aerosol Jet® printing, a highaccuracy
additive manufacturing technique which allows for a full
control over the topology of the printed structures. Collagen inks
incorporated with nano-particles will be developed, followed by the
printing of complex 3D engineered structures. To evaluate the
potential use of the printed structures as scaffolds for cell-based
approaches, their biocompatibility and ability to guide cell growth in
vitro will be assessed.