Bio-manufacturing of tissue engineering scaffolds

组织工程学的一个关键目标是生产能够与患者共同成长的“人造”器官和组织替代品，最终为受损的器官或组织提供永久性的解决方案。为此，组织支架扮演着重要的角色。组织支架是由具有高度相互连接的孔网络的生物材料制成的三维(3D)结构，用于促进细胞生长和营养物质和废物的运输。由于很难模拟天然组织的组织结构，创建这些支架被证明是具有挑战性的。在这个项目中，我们将开发一种生物制造组织支架的方法，在这种方法中，活细胞被操纵并添加到支架中。将该方法与快速成型相结合，即在连续的薄层中制造3D支架，我们将能够制造具有空间可控的细胞分布和支架微结构的支架。

One key goal of tissue engineering is to produce 'artificial' organ and tissue substitutes that can grow with patients, ultimately providing a permanent solution to damaged organs or tissues. For this, tissue scaffolds play an important role. A tissue scaffold is a three-dimensional (3D) structure made from biomaterials with highly interconnected pore networks, and is used to facilitate cell growth and transport of nutrients and wastes. Creating these scaffolds has proven challenging due to the difficulty in mimicking the organization of native tissues. In this project, we will develop a method for bio-manufacturing tissue scaffolds, in which living cells are manipulated and added to the scaffolds. Incorporating the method with rapid prototyping, an approach in which a 3D scaffold is manufactured in successive thin layers, we will be able to fabricate scaffolds with spatially controlled distributions of cells and scaffold microstructure.