Bio-manufacturing of tissue engineering scaffolds

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One key goal of tissue engineering is to produce 'artificial' organ and tissue substitutes that can grow with patients, ultimately providing a permanent solution to damaged organs or tissues. For this, tissue scaffolds play an important role. A tissue scaffold is a three-dimensional (3D) structure made from biomaterials with highly interconnected pore networks, and is used to facilitate cell growth and transport of nutrients and wastes. Creating these scaffolds has proven challenging due to the difficulty in mimicking the organization of native tissues. In this project, we will develop a method for bio-manufacturing tissue scaffolds, in which living cells are manipulated and added to the scaffolds. Incorporating the method with rapid prototyping, an approach in which a 3D scaffold is manufactured in successive thin layers, we will be able to fabricate scaffolds with spatially controlled distributions of cells and scaffold microstructure.