3D Stem Cell Printing for Animal-Free Drug Development

最近，通过使用改进的喷墨打印机技术实现了打印组织和微型器官，使生物制造领域成为可能。这种直接打印活细胞的新方法为药物发现和治疗应用开辟了组织科学和工程学的新范式。我们已经率先开发了世界上第一台基于瓣膜的生物打印机，它能够在不破坏细胞的情况下打印人类胚胎干细胞，同时保持其生物学功能。该项目旨在开发第一台基于瓣膜打印技术的商业干细胞生物打印机，由全球机器人控制领域的参与者雷尼绍(Renishaw Ltd)领导的一个联盟和一家专门从事从干细胞开发用于药物测试的人体心肌细胞的中小企业(ClydeBiosciences Ltd)合作。我们将雷尼绍的IP保护3D打印平台与现有的基于阀门的细胞打印技术相结合，开发出一种新型的干细胞打印机。然后，新平台将得到验证，可以使用领先的干细胞公司Roslin Cellab Ltd的人类干细胞来生产人体心脏和肝脏组织，并测试它们对药物的反应。这一新工具不仅将使我们能够生产高质量的人体组织，以进行可能更可靠的无动物药物测试，而且还将使制药业、生物技术公司和干细胞生物学家的一系列高通量应用成为可能。

Printing tissues and mini-organs have recently been achieved by using modified ink-jet printer technology enabling the fieldof biofabrication. The novel method of direct printing live cells opens up new paradigm in tissue science and engineering fordrug discovery and therapeutic applications. We have pioneered the world first valve based bioprinter that is capable ofprinting human embryonic stem cells without damaging the cells while maintaining their biological functions. This projectaims to develop the first commercial stem cell bioprinter baed on the valve-based printing technology, working in aconsortium led by the global player in robotic control (Renishaw Ltd) and a SME (ClydeBiosciences Ltd) specialised indeveloping human heart muscle cells from stem cells for drug testing. We will develop a new type of stem cell printer byintegrating IP protected 3d printing platform from Renishaw with existing valve based cell printing technology. The newplatform will then be validated for producing human heart and liver tissues using human stem cells from leading stem cellcompany Roslin Cellab Ltd) and testing their responses to drugs. The new tool will not only allow us to produce high qualityhuman tissue for potentially more reliable animal free drug testing, but also enable a range of high throughput applicationsfor pharmaceutical industry, biotechnology companies and stem cell biologists.