Generation of thick vascularized tissues that fully match the patient still remains an unmet challenge in cardiac tissue engineering. Here, a simple approach to 3D‐print thick, vascularized, and perfusable cardiac patches that completely match the immunological, cellular, biochemical, and anatomical properties of the patient is reported. To this end, a biopsy of an omental tissue is taken from patients. While the cells are reprogrammed to become pluripotent stem cells, and differentiated to cardiomyocytes and endothelial cells, the extracellular matrix is processed into a personalized hydrogel. Following, the two cell types are separately combined with hydrogels to form bioinks for the parenchymal cardiac tissue and blood vessels. The ability to print functional vascularized patches according to the patient's anatomy is demonstrated. Blood vessel architecture is further improved by mathematical modeling of oxygen transfer. The structure and function of the patches are studied in vitro, and cardiac cell morphology is assessed after transplantation, revealing elongated cardiomyocytes with massive actinin striation. Finally, as a proof of concept, cellularized human hearts with a natural architecture are printed. These results demonstrate the potential of the approach for engineering personalized tissues and organs, or for drug screening in an appropriate anatomical structure and patient‐specific biochemical microenvironment.

Human pluripotent stem cell derived models that accurately recapitulate neural development in vitro and allow for the generation of specific neuronal subtypes are of major interest to the stem cell and biomedical community. Notch signaling, particularly through the Notch effector HES5, is a major pathway critical for the onset and maintenance of neural progenitor cells (NPCs) in the embryonic and adult nervous system1-3. This can be exploited to isolate distinct populations of human embryonic stem (ES) cell derived NPCs4. Here, we report the transcriptional and epigenomic analysis of six consecutive stages derived from a HES5-GFP reporter ES cell line5 differentiated along the neural trajectory aimed at modeling key cell fate decisions including specification, expansion and patterning during the ontogeny of cortical neural stem and progenitor cells. In order to dissect the regulatory mechanisms that orchestrate the stage-specific differentiation process, we developed a computational framework to infer key regulators of each cell state transition based on the progressive remodeling of the epigenetic landscape and then validated these through a pooled shRNA screen. We were also able to refine our previous observations on epigenetic priming at transcription factor binding sites and show here that they are mediated by combinations of core and stage- specific factors. Taken together, we demonstrate the utility of our system and outline a general framework, not limited to the context of the neural lineage, to dissect regulatory circuits of differentiation.

Despite incremental improvements in the field of tissue engineering, no technology is currently available for producing completely autologous implants where both the cells and the scaffolding material are generated from the patient, and thus do not provoke an immune response that may lead to implant rejection. Here, a new approach is introduced to efficiently engineer any tissue type, which its differentiation cues are known, from one small tissue biopsy. Pieces of omental tissues are extracted from patients and, while the cells are reprogrammed to become induced pluripotent stem cells, the extracellular matrix is processed into an immunologically matching, thermoresponsive hydrogel. Efficient cell differentiation within a large 3D hydrogel is reported, and, as a proof of concept, the generation of functional cardiac, cortical, spinal cord, and adipogenic tissue implants is demonstrated. This versatile bioengineering approach may assist to regenerate any tissue and organ with a minimal risk for immune rejection.

Decoding heterogeneity of pluripotent stem cell (PSC)-derived neural progeny is fundamental for revealing the origin of diverse progenitors, for defining their lineages, and for identifying fate determinants driving transition through distinct potencies. Here we have prospectively isolated consecutively appearing PSC-derived primary progenitors based on their Notch activation state. We first isolate early neuroepithelial cells and show their broad Notch-dependent developmental and proliferative potential. Neuroepithelial cells further yield successive Notch-dependent functional primary progenitors, from early and midneurogenic radial glia and their derived basal progenitors, to gliogenic radial glia and adult-like neural progenitors, together recapitulating hallmarks of neural stem cell (NSC) ontogeny. Gene expression profiling reveals dynamic stage-specific transcriptional patterns that may link development of distinct progenitor identities through Notch activation. Our observations provide a platform for characterization and manipulation of distinct progenitor cell types amenable for developing streamlined neural lineage specification paradigms for modelling development in health and disease.

Cardiac tissue engineering aims to create cardiac tissue constructs that recapitulate the structure and function of the native heart. This approach has been widely used for creating myocardial implants for regenerative medicine, and more recently, for developing in vitro cardiotoxicity screening assays. However, once the engineered myocardial tissues are implanted or subjected to pharmacological stimuli, their performance should be monitored. Currently, there is no biomaterial that promotes functional tissues assembly while providing real‐time information about their function, in situ. In this study, the piezoelectric phenomenon is sought to be exploited, to measure the contractions generated by engineered cardiac tissues. A poly‐(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF)‐based electrospun fiber scaffold is developed, and it is hypothesized that the contractions of cardiomyocytes in the scaffold will induce mechanical deformations, which will result in measurable electric voltage. The PVDF scaffolds are characterized and optimized for supporting formation of aligned, functional, cardiac tissues. The scaffolds' function is then validated as sensors for tissue contraction and it is demonstrated that they can sense contractions of tissues constructed from as few as 5 × 105 cardiomyocytes. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that human induced pluripotent stem cells can be directly seeded and differentiated to cardiomyocytes, and then mature over the course of 40 days on the PVDF fiber scaffolds.