Additive manufacturing of organs-on-a-chip using biodegradable elastomeric polymers

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Organ-on-a-chip engineering could revolutionize new compound screening and biomarker discovery. However, current platforms only reproduce a very limited set of organs and lack many critical organ functions such as vasculature, which greatly limits their potential. Recently, we developed AngioChip technology that enabled us to marry two seemingly opposing criteria: permeability and mechanical stability of the vasculature, in a single microfabricated polymer based scaffold for organ-on-a-chip engineering. However, the assembly of the polymer structures necessitated multiple photolithography steps, and manual, layer-by-layer assembly. Despite the great potential of this approach, scaling is not possible using current microfabrication methods. Here, we propose to develop a novel additive manufacturing technology based on 3D printing to directly, automatically and rapidly print polymer scaffolds, with controlled nm-um porosity and with an embedded vasculature ready for 3D organ self-assembly. There are currently no standardized organ-on-a-chip manufacturing technologies, and additive manufacturing is the most promising technology for this unmet need. We will develop new elastomeric polymers to serve as inks and a stereolitography approach for their 3D printing into organ-scaffolds with enclosed lumens. We will design inert cultivation platforms with the dimensions of standard well plates that will each be fitted with a 3D biodegradable mini-organ scaffold ready for cell seeding and pump-free perfusion. Heart and liver tissue will be grown based on human cells, since they are often affected by drug toxicities and novel biomarkers for their functions are critically needed. We will incorporate conductive polymers into the heart-on-a-chip for actuation and field potential sensing. Our supporting organizations will be able to capitalize on this collaboration by using organs-on-a-chip for development of new analytics (Photon), identification of new liver-failure biomarkers (Nucro-technics) and heart-failure biomarkers (TARA Biosystems) as well as relying on organs-on-a-chip for their in-house drug testing projects (Nucro-technics and TARA). Together, they are supporting the project with over $190,000 of in-kind contributions.