Hybrid 3D printed and tissue engineered bioreactors - applications to the neuromuscular system

外周神经系统(PNS)是控制人类运动的传入和传出信号的管道。生理相关的模型对于理解正常和病理过程至关重要，如运动控制(正常)或运动神经元疾病(病理)；在活的生物体中研究细胞水平的机制本质上是困难的，因此需要高精度的体外模型。这个项目建立在十多年出版和资助的使用组织工程学原理来创建和使用此类模型的专业知识的基础上，这些模型源于骨骼肌(SKM)的工作，该工作已经扩展到包括SKM与之接口的组织--包括神经系统。具体地说，该项目将致力于利用3D打印技术来生成一种定制的“生物反应器”，使3D组织工程神经肌肉结构能够以“即插即用”的方式集成在一起。该灌流系统将是自动化的，允许实时生物反馈和优化灌流方案，减少处理时间和最终成本，同时提高从每种生物状况产生的代表性数据的质量。该项目位于生物和化学的交界处，涉及设计和3D打印技术。它雄心勃勃，但与更大的研究议程保持一致，并将为学生提供一种跨学科的培训制度，从长远来看，这将使他们受益。

The peripheral nervous system (PNS) is the conduit for the afferent and efferent signals that control human movement. There are multiple reasons that physiologically-relevant models are vital for the understanding of normal and pathological processes such as motor control (normal) or motor neurone disease (pathological); it is intrinsically difficult to study mechanisms at the cellular level in living organisms hence the need for highly accurate in vitro models. This project builds on over a decade of published and funded expertise in the use of tissue engineering principles to create and use such models stemming from work in skeletal muscle (SkM) that has expanded to include the tissues that SkM interfaces with - including neural systems. Specifically the project will aim to utilise 3D printing technology to generate a custom "bioreactor" enabling 3D tissue engineered neuromuscular constructs to be integrated in a "plug and play" style. This perfusion system will be automated allowing live biological feedback and optimisation of the perfusion protocol, reducing handling times and ultimately cost, whilst increasing the quality of representative data being generated from each biological condition. This project lies at the interface of biology and chemistry, and involves design and 3D printing techniques. It is ambitious but aligns with a larger research agenda and will provide the student with an interdisciplinary training regime that will benefit them in the longer term.