A Bioprinter System for Fabricating Advanced Biomaterials

生物打印是一项新兴技术，它利用机器人技术和液体处理技术的进步来精确沉积生物材料，如聚合物和细胞。生物打印行业正在迅速发展，迫切需要培训这一领域的高素质人才，并相应地更新学术基础设施。所要求的设备将直接支持达尔豪斯大学生物医学工程学院的三个研究项目，重点是新型生物材料的设计、制造和应用。该设备还将加速达尔豪斯大学（Dalhousie University）四个学院（工程、医学、牙科和科学）研究人员之间的现有合作，并有助于与加拿大各地的研究人员开展新的合作，开发尖端生物材料。该设备将受益的项目包括：(1)Frampton实验室的基于支架和无支架的3D细胞培养微环境工程；(2) Frampton实验室培养表皮组织的制备与分析；(3)复合纤维-凝胶软质生物材料在Frampton实验室的制备；(4) Frampton实验室快速液体打印血脑屏障模型；(5)在Leung实验室模拟哺乳动物-微生物在粘膜微环境中的相互作用；(6) Leung实验室在异质肿瘤微环境中追踪细胞命运；(7) Leung实验室牙髓再生生物材料设计；(8) Maksym实验室气道显微组织的制备与分析；(9) Maksym实验室研究气道环的结构-功能关系。精密生物打印系统将吸引来自物理、材料科学、工程和生命科学领域的高素质人才，他们希望利用生物打印来加强他们的研究。这些学科的学员将有能力快速开发具有复杂几何形状和成分的新材料，这是达尔豪斯大学现有的任何液体处理和快速原型设备都无法实现的。所要求的生物打印机系统的易用性和多功能性将使达尔豪斯大学现有的资源和专业知识得到最好的利用，以确保上面列出的各种项目达到研究和行业准备就绪的状态。它还将作为一种额外的资源，以增强针对非生物结构的制造和快速原型设计的现有基础设施的能力。

Bioprinting is an emerging technology that utilizes technical advancements in robotics and liquid handling for precise deposition of biological materials such as polymers and cells. The bioprinting industry is growing rapidly and there is an urgent need for training highly qualified personnel in this area and to update academic infrastructure accordingly. The requested equipment will directly support three research programs in the School of Biomedical Engineering at Dalhousie University focused on the design, fabrication and application of novel biomaterials. The equipment will also accelerate existing collaborations among researchers from four Faculties at Dalhousie University (Engineering, Medicine, Dentistry and Science) and help to initiate new collaborations with researchers across Canada developing cutting-edge biomaterials. The projects that this equipment will benefit include: (1) Engineering Scaffold-based and Scaffold-free 3D Cell Culture Microenvironments in the Frampton Lab; (2) Manufacture and Analysis of Lab-Grown Epidermal Tissues in the Frampton Lab; (3) Fabrication of Composite Fiber-Gel Soft Biomaterials in the Frampton Lab; (4) Rapid Liquid Printing of Blood-Brain Barrier Models in the Frampton Lab; (5) Simulating Mammalian-Microbe Interactions in the Mucosal Microenvironment in the Leung Lab; (6) Tracking Cell Fate in Heterogeneous Tumour Microenvironments in the Leung Lab; (7) Biomaterial Design for Endodontic Regeneration in the Leung Lab; (8) Manufacture and Analysis of Airway Microtissues in the Maksym Lab; and (9) Investigating Structure-Function Relationships in Airway Rings in the Maksym Lab. A precision bioprinter system will attract highly qualified personnel from physics, materials science, engineering, and the life sciences who wish to utilize bioprinting to enhance their research. Trainees from these disciplines will have the ability to rapidly develop new materials with complex geometries and compositions, which cannot be achieved with any of the existing equipment for liquid handling and rapid prototyping at Dalhousie University. The ease of use and versatility of the requested bioprinter system will allow existing resources and expertise at Dalhousie University to be best-utilized to see that the various projects listed above reach a state of research- and industry-readiness. It will also serve as an additional resource to enhance the capabilities of existing infrastructure targeted at fabrication and rapid prototyping of non-living structures.