Bioinspired Multifunctional Materials for Cell and Tissue Assembly

Expertise in cell engineering and the design of multifunctional soft materials – including hydrogels, coatings, dynamic stimuli-responsive materials, and 3D patterning approaches – as well as precise control of microenvironment parameters, is used to create and maintain reproducible culture conditions to facilitate new avenues for cell manufacture.

Competitive advantage

  • Novel synthetic materials with user-defined dynamics enable spatiotemporal control over cell assembly and activity
  • Expertise in the precise control of chemistry and mechanics in vitro to homogenise cell state for the tuning of a desired population
  • Skills at controlling and directing cell state in the laboratory facilitate 3D assembly into functional tissue-mimetic architectures

Impact

  • Coatings and materials for reproducible manufacture of clinically useful cells from donor banks or patients
  • Model systems comprised of 2D/3D spheroids and organoids for development and disease modelling, and for drug development

Successful outcomes

  • Engineering melanoma heterogeneity in a microtumour array for testing combination therapies
  • Multicellular heterotypic models of tissue microenvironments with 3D printed vasculature

Capabilities and facilities

  • GeneTech-approved PC2 laboratory with lithographic, ink jet and direct-write printing
  • Wet chemistry and molecular biology laboratories

Our partners

  • Mayo Clinic
  • Cynata Therapeutics
Tags
lensBioengineered Materials and Technologies
lensBio-engineering for a Healthy Future