Granular Bioink Made-To-Order from Macroporous Collagen Particles Offers Excellent Printability, Shape Fidelity, and Reduced Tissue Contraction

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Our proposal is focused on enhancing the value proposition of a complete bioprinting solution that synthesizes and delivers skin precursor sheets directly onto the surface of large skin wounds (i.e., in situ), where they can act as wound dressings that promote healing and reduce scarring and wound contracture (which disfigures and limits a person's movement). Our solution includes three components: a handheld bioprinter instrument whose development is already complete and not part of the proposal, a new customized bioink that can harbour living cells, and disposable parts of the bioprinter, including multi-nozzle printheads, which extrude bioink directly onto the target surface. Our new customized bioink consists of tightly packed granules of collagen. We will optimize the bioink's "printability", a feature that will enable the bioink to form mm-thick skin precursor sheets on the wide range of surface topologies found on the human body. We will further optimize the design of the multi-nozzle printheads enabling it to extrude sheets of uniform size and composition, while maximizing the viability of cells in the bioink and minimizing time needed for sheet synthesis and delivery.