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Biomanufacturing

Biomaterials/3D Printing

Technique for rapidly forming networks of microvessel-like structures

Thursday, October 12, 2023
8:40 AM – 9:00 AM PDT
Location: 333 (Center, Level 3)
With the onset of biomimetic scaffold development, the field of tissue engineering is expanding rapidly, yet one issue limiting the translation of recent findings is the maintenance of nutrient and gas transport to and from cells within 3-dimensional (3) biomaterial constructs. Creating microvasculature (with diameters less than 100 microns) that mimic in vivo conditions can be difficult since neither cellular self-assembly nor mechanical forming can be leveraged at this scale. Here, we present a 3D printed co-axial extruder used to form alginate threads (ATs) that encapsulate endothelial cells. These cell-laden ATs can then be integrated with tissue engineering scaffolds to drive vascular network formation in 3D constructs.