Abstract

Abstract: While tissue engineering can generate thin grafts, its ability to recapitulate the structure and function of bulk tissues and organs has been fundamentally limited, in large-part by the absence of a readily perfusable vasculature. Absent a blood supply, any metabolically demanding tissue thicker than a few hundred microns will undergo rapid core necrosis due to the lack of oxygen and nutrients. 3D bioprinting has recently enabled the construction of complex, heterogeneous tissues with embedded vascular networks, which, when connected to pumps can enable large-scale tissues to remain viable. In this talk, I will highlight two recent advances in 3D bioprinting that can manufacture vasculature networks from the micron scale to the centimeter scale. The first method uses multimaterial bioprinting to manufacture stem-cell laden vascularized tissues that are > 1 cm thick. The second method uses multi-photon photolithography to manufacture, with laser-precision, complex 3D capillary networks at the micron-scale.

Biography: Mark Skylar-Scott was at Sidney Sussex College for his BA and MEng degrees. For his PhD with Prof. Fatih Yanik at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he developed new methods for laser-patterning proteins onto substrates for high-throughput quantitative neurodevelopmental assays. Next, he applied this technology to perform multi-photon micropatterning of capillary networks. Now as a postdoc in Jennifer Lewis’ Lab at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University, he is developing 3D bioprinting technologies for manufacturing large-scale vascularized tissues with applications in disease modeling, drug screening, and ultimately, therapeutics.