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Biofabrication strategies to emulate human tissues and organs 

Abstract: Nature in general, and lower vertebrates in particular, have evolved to grow and regenerate tissues and organs through complex self-assembling mechanisms using cells and other biomolecules as building blocks. Unfortunately, our bodies do not display this capacity, and although some organs (e.g. liver) can regenerate to a reasonable extent, most of human tissues resort to fibrosis and scar tissue formation upon trauma or disease. The emergence of 3D Bioprinting technologies has enabled us to overcome some of these limitations and develop artificial implants suitable for clinical restoration of human tissue and organ function. Operating in a layer-by-layer form, 3D Bioprinting allows for the automated fabrication of 3D tissue analogues with complex functional and structural organization through the precise spatial positioning of multiple materials and cells. Although our ability to create biological constructs with increasing complexity has been significantly improved with the introduction of these additive manufacturing technologies in the field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, the reality is that many of the cellular and molecular mechanisms underpinning human tissue regeneration and disease remain unclear. In this talk I will describe some of the most recent work done in our group to emulate human tissues and organs using advanced biofabrication systems in combination with polymeric hydrogels and stem cell technology. In particular, I will attempt to demonstrate how different fabrication strategies (i.e. top-down, bottom-up and hybrid) can be used to build 3D models with tuneable properties (i.e. physical, chemical, biological) and effectively employed in interrogating biological processes associated with (1) skeletal tissue regeneration, (2) cancer and (3) dementia. Finally, I will discuss some of the major challenges and opportunities in the field of biofabrication towards the development of personalized therapies.   

Bio: Marco Domingos is a Senior lecturer/Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Civil Engineering at the University of Manchester (UK). He graduated in Mechanical Engineering (2006) from the Polytechnic Institute of Leiria (Portugal) and holds a Ph.D. (2013) cum laude in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Girona (Spain). He was elected fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK) in 2016 and fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (FIMechE, UK) in 2017. He is also visiting Professor at the Centre for Rapid and Sustainable Product Development (CDRSP, Portugal) and at The University of Naples, Federico II (Naples, Italy). Since 2019, he is a principal investigator at the Henry Royce Institute (Manchester) with research interests in advanced biomaterials and biofabrication for regenerative medicine. He has authored or co-authored more than 50 scientific publications, including articles in peer-reviewed international journals, books and book chapters.