CAREER: Capillary-Incorporated Bioprinting of Biomimetic Soft Tissue Constructs

生物打印是一种增材制造工艺，旨在创造三维生物结构来修复或替换受损的组织或器官。尽管在过去的二十年里，材料和工艺的发展取得了重大进展，但生物打印具有维持生命的毛细血管的大型功能组织的需求仍未得到满足。这个学院早期职业发展（Career）项目研究了一种混合生物打印技术，该技术可以促进毛细血管结合生物打印的发展，以实现最佳的组织再生。这项技术包括在水凝胶层之间的多孔微管的静电纺丝，以便为营养物质提供通道，使其到达将要在支架内生长的细胞。这项研究的结果可能为复杂疾病的新型制造解决方案和生物启发疗法提供一条道路，从而推进再生医学。该项目旨在通过对K-12教师和学生实施以技能为基础的沉浸式教学计划，并在具有全球联系的农村地区建立大学-社区合作伙伴关系，培养和吸引多元化的学生群体，以实现未来医药制造业的卓越成就。这些教育推广活动应有助于在西德克萨斯州建立一个生物制造生态系统，并采用可扩展的模式来加强农村地区的研究和教育网络和伙伴关系。此外，该奖项将扩大代表性不足的群体在传统制造业投资组合以外的研究中的参与，以期为维持美国在先进制造业和生物医药领域的全球领导地位做出贡献。该职业奖支持毛细管生物打印的基础科学和工程研究，用于制造厘米大小的支架，与具有毛细血管功能的仿生多孔微管集成。研究任务包括：(1)模拟微管的形态和渗透率；(2)表征材料和工艺参数对系统打印质量的影响；(3)建立仿生结构的过程-功能关系。通过成功完成这三项研究任务，本CAREER项目将对多孔微管的形成机制、壁厚对微管渗透率的影响、材料组成、工艺参数和毛细管结合支架的时间依赖性之间的相互关系产生新的认识。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Bioprinting is an additive manufacturing process that aims to create three-dimensional biological constructs to repair or replace damaged tissues or organs. Despite significant progress on material and process development in the last two decades, there is an unmet need for bioprinting large functional tissues with life-sustaining capillaries. This Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) project investigates a hybrid bioprinting technology that can contribute to the development of capillary-incorporated bioprinting for optimal tissue regeneration. The technique includes electrospinning of porous microtubes between layers of hydrogels in order to provide channels for nutrients to reach cells which are to be grown inside the scaffold. The outcomes of this research could provide a path toward novel manufacturing solutions for complex diseases and bioinspired therapies that can advance regenerative medicine. The project aims to cultivate and engage a diverse student body to achieve future excellence in manufacturing for medicine by implementing a skill-based immersive teaching program for K-12 teachers and students, and establishing university-community partnerships in rural areas with global connections. These educational outreach activities should help to build an ecosystem of biofabrication in west Texas, with scalable models for enhancing research and education networks and partnerships in rural areas. In addition, this award will broaden the participation of underrepresented groups in research outside the customary manufacturing portfolio, with a desire to contribute to sustaining America's global leadership in advanced manufacturing and biomedicine.This CAREER award supports fundamental science and engineering research in capillary-incorporated bioprinting for fabricating centimeter-sized scaffolds integrated with biomimetic porous microtubes that function as capillary vessels. The research tasks include (1) modeling the microtube morphology and permeability, (2) characterizing the effects of material and process parameters on the printing quality of the system, and (3) building the process-function relationship of biomimetic constructs. By successfully completing these three research tasks, this CAREER project will generate new knowledge about the mechanisms of porous microtube formation, the effect of wall thickness on the microtube permeability, and the interrelationships between material composition, process parameters, and the time-dependent properties of capillary-incorporated scaffolds.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.