REFRESH: Rerouting of Free-Floating Suspended Hydrogel Filaments for Advanced Biofabrication

The aim of this project is to develop and explore a novel groundbreaking biofabrication technology for engineering of tissue-mimetic structures referred to here as Rerouting of Free-Floating Suspended Hydrogel Filaments (REFRESH).

We will develop cell-compatible hydrogels and hydrogel processing technologies that will enable the fabrication of cell-laden filamentous structures using extrusion bioprinting that can be remodeled and rerouted and assembled into complex geometries.

We will specifically focus on the possibilities to generate vascular-mimetic structures for perfusion of human three-dimensional breast cancer models.

The possibilities to systematically study angiogenesis, invasion and metastasis in physiologically relevant human cancer models will allow us to address major gaps-of-knowledge that can facilitate identification of key pathways for the development of novel therapeutic targets and exploration of personalized treatments.

This unique technology will also allow us to explore unconventional biomaterial processing techniques, including knotting, knitting, braiding, and weaving of cell-laden hydrogel filaments, opening a new vast design space for soft tissue engineering.

The work will be carried out over a period of four years by a team of four research groups with complementary expertise in soft biomaterials, tissue engineering, cancer biology, and textile technology.