BioE Seminar Series: 3D Bioprinting Human Tissues

3D bioprinting can create living human tissues on demand based on specifications contained in a digital file. Such highly customized, physiologically-relevant 3D human tissue models can screen potential drug candidates as an alternative to expensive pre-clinical animal testing. The Willerth lab has developed a novel fibrin-based bioink called TissuePrint for bioprinting neural tissues derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs), which can become any cell type found in the body. Our group has bioprinted a range of functional human tissues for a variety of applications, including modeling neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and for screening potential cancer drugs. Here I will discuss the latest work from our group as well discuss our award-winning spin-off company - Axolotl Biosciences - that sells novel reagents for bioprinting human tissue models.