3D Bioplotter for Biological Tissue Development

人类、动物甚至植物的生物组织已经进化成高度复杂的三维结构。大自然设计并利用了各种各样的材料，从非常坚硬到高度弹性，导致我们每天看到的各种各样的生命结构。这些组织还包含细胞，这些细胞可以主动改变和重塑周围组织以应对不断变化的需求。一个常见的例子是，网球运动员通常有一个占优势的手臂，比他们的另一只手臂更大，肌肉更发达。虽然常识告诉我们，增加手臂上的机械负荷会导致它变大，但我们对这些重塑过程有很多不了解。疾病的形成也涉及重塑过程。事实上，现代人类和动物医学、农业和环境的许多问题都涉及组织对外力或有害化学物质的反应。为了理解这些反应，研究人员需要能够非常详细地研究组织行为。实际活组织的使用是有限的，有时还涉及复杂而重要的伦理问题。因此，我们转向在实验室中构建组织的可能性，以解开自然的秘密并开发重要的新疾病治疗策略。到目前为止，我们忠实地重建组织的能力是有限的。然而，我们现在可以在全3D中“打印”组织，包括各种复杂材料甚至活细胞。我们建议购买一台3D生物绘图仪，并使用它来解决各种重要的生物医学问题。帝国理工学院生物工程系的研究专家对导致英国大部分死亡和痛苦的各种疾病感兴趣。这些包括癌症、关节炎、心脏病、老年痴呆症以及烧伤和其他伤害。我们计划应用这项技术来构建尽可能接近受这些条件影响的身体组织的组织。这将使我们能够了解组织行为，并测试可以减轻痛苦和防止死亡的革命性治疗策略。我们也有可能打印新的组织植入体内。这一研究领域（称为“再生医学”）是一个令人兴奋的新探索领域，但仍处于应用的早期阶段。我们对这些植入物有几个想法，我们将进行测试，期望公司和/或医院能够开发出实际的人体植入物。

Biological tissues in humans, animals, and even plants have evolved into highly complex three dimensional structures. Nature has devised and made use of a variety of materials, ranging from very stiff to highly elastic, resulting in the tremendous variety of living structures we see around us every day. These tissues also incorporate cells, which can actively change and remodel the surrounding tissue in response to changing needs. One example is the common observation that tennis players often have a dominant arm that is larger and more muscular than their other arm. While common sense tells us that the increased mechanical load on that arm causes it to grow bigger, there is much about these remodelling processes that we do not understand. There are also remodelling processes that are involved in disease formation. Indeed, many of the problems of modern human and animal medicine, agriculture, and the environment involve the response of tissues to external forces or harmful chemicals. In order to understand these responses, researchers need to be able to study tissue behaviour in great detail. The use of actual living tissue is limited, and sometimes involves complex and important ethical issues. We therefore turn to the possibility of constructing tissues in our laboratory to unlock nature's secrets and develop important new disease treatment strategies. So far, our abilities to faithfully reconstruct tissues have been limited. However, we can now literally "print" tissues in full 3D, incorporating the various complex materials and even living cells. We propose to purchase one of these 3D Bioplotters, and use it to address a variety of important biomedical problems. Our research experts in the Bioengineering Department at Imperial College are interested in a variety of diseases that cause most of the deaths and suffering in the UK. These include cancer, arthritis, heart disease, Alzheimer's, as well as burns and other injuries. We plan to apply this technology to construct tissues that imitate as closely as possible the body's tissues that are affected by these conditions. That will allow us to understand tissue behaviour and test revolutionary treatment strategies that can alleviate suffering and prevent deaths. There is also the possibility that we can print new tissues for implantation into the body. This area of research (called "regenerative medicine") is an exciting new area for exploration, but is still in the early days of application. We have several ideas for these implants that we will test, with the expectation that the actual human implants will be developed by companies and/or hospitals.