Engineering functional blood vessels

Vascularisation remains the major bottle-neck in clinical translation of tissue engineered matrices. Most laboratory grown tissue analogues are <2mm in size and not representative of the physiological size of most organs. For example, a full grown human heart is within the 12cm x 8cm dimensions. As most of the organs in our bodies are highly vascularised, where blood vessels are fundament to facilitate oxygen and nutrient transfer, in order to promote long term viability and function of these organs. Our group focuses on using light-activated macromolecular chemistry and 3D bioprinting approaches, to attempt to create multi-scalar and multi-functional blood vessels that can be integrated into laboratory-grown tissue analogues.  Please see some selected publications below:

1. BG Soliman; GCJ Lindberg; T Jungst; GJ Hooper; J Groll; TBF Woodfield; KS Lim*. Stepwise control of crosslinking in one-pot system for bioprinting of low-density bioinks. Advanced Healthcare Materials, 2020, 9, 15, 1901544. doi: 10.1002/adhm.201901544
2. KS Lim; M Baptista; S Moon; TBF Woodfield; J Rnjak-Kovacina. Microchannels in Development, Survival and Vascularisation of Tissue Analogues for Regenerative Medicine. Trends in Biotechnology; 2019, 37 (11). doi: 10.1016/j.tibtech.2019.04.004
3. BJ Klotz; LA Oosterhoff; L Utomo; KS Lim; Q Vallmajo-Martin; H Clevers; TBF Woodfield; AJWP Rosenberg; J Malda; M Ehrbar; B Spee; D Gawlitta. A versatile bio-synthetic hydrogel platform for engineering of tissue analogues. Advanced Healthcare Materials. 2019, 8, 1900979. doi: 10.1002/adhm.201900979
4. BJ Klotz; KS Lim; YX Chang; BG Soliman; I Pennings; FPW Melchels; TBF Woodfield; AJWP Rosenberg; J Malda; D Gawlitta. Engineering a complex bone tissue model with endothelialised channels and capillary-like networks. European Cells & Materials. 2018. 35, 335 – 349. doi: 10.22203/eCM.v035a23