###3D bioprinted vascular model as a platform to investigate cardiovascular diseases
Project ID: 2228bd1047 (You will need this ID for your application)
Research Theme: Healthcare Technologies
UCL Lead department: Division of Surgery and Interventional Sciences
Lead Supervisor: Deepak M Kalaskar
Project Summary:
cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) – disorders of the heart and blood vessels – are the leading cause of death worldwide, accounting for 17.9 million deaths annually which is 31% of deaths worldwide (WHO). Our ability to improve existing treatments by identifying new therapeutic targets relies upon understanding the disease pathogenesis, and the underlying biochemical and cellular pathological mechanisms, which remain unknown.
In vitro models are deemed an ethical alternative of the animal models – the most common model currently – in drug development but only simple model, typically with single tissue component, have been proposed due to their inherent scaffold related limitations, i.e. poor cell viability and instable cell phenotype. 3D Bioprinting provides promising opportunity to fabricate 3D tissue structures with various combinations of cells and materials. This PhD project build on previous work developed by the group and foscuses on development of biofabrication platform based on Freeform Reversible Embedding of Suspended Hydrogels (FRESH) technology, suitable for high throughput biomanufacturing to produce standardisable and translational human relevant vascular models.
By using FRESH bioprinting technology, we aim to achieve spatially controlled layered distributions of more than one cell type which will mimic the natural tissue structure of blood vessels. We aim to seed endothelial cells, smooth muscle cells and fibroblasts into novel peptide-based, animal free, self-assembled bioinks. These bioinks have been shown to be biocompatible, bioprintable and provide a conducive environment for cells to grow and proliferate. The key objective is to develop a new 3D in vitro vascular model with human cells, which mimics the blood vessel architecture and can be used to study the interactions between the blood and the wall. Student will learn aboit biomaterails, advace biofabrication technologies , engineeirng and medical application.