Tackling Current Biomedical Challenges With Frontier Biofabrication and Organ-On-A-Chip Technologies

Abstract

In the last decades, biomedical research has significantly boomed in the academia and industrial sectors, and it is expected to continue to grow at a rapid pace in the future. An in-depth analysis of such growth is not trivial, given the intrinsic multidisciplinary nature of biomedical research. Nevertheless, technological advances are among the main factors which have enabled such progress. In this review, we discuss the contribution of two state-of-the-art technologies–namely biofabrication and organ-on-a-chip–in a selection of biomedical research areas. We start by providing an overview of these technologies and their capacities in fabricating advanced in vitro tissue/organ models. We then analyze their impact on addressing a range of current biomedical challenges. Ultimately, we speculate about their future developments by integrating these technologies with other cutting-edge research fields such as artificial intelligence and big data analysis.

Hydrogel-Based Fiber Biofabrication Techniques for Skeletal Muscle Tissue Engineering

“… 172 − 174 For instance, organ-on-chips (OOCs) have been employed as a platform to simulate the physiological and pathological tissue microenvironment or to perform high-throughput drug screening or toxicology. 174 − 177 Besides, microfluidics also emerged as a fascinating approach for the microengineering of hydrogels, including continuous fabrication of hydrogel microfibers. 178 − 182 Hydrogel solutions are injected into the inlet of a microfluidic chip, delivered through microchannels in a laminar flow, and directly extruded from the outlet of microchannels or embedded syringe needles or glass capillaries.…”

“…Microfluidic chips with high resolution and complex designs can be easily produced by low-cost methods, including soft lithography techniques (e.g., PDMS and SU-8 molds processing) and nonsoft lithography techniques (e.g., xurography, micromilling, laser jet) . Over the last decades, microfluidic technology has shown significant results in biomedicine and in the diagnostic field. − For instance, organ-on-chips (OOCs) have been employed as a platform to simulate the physiological and pathological tissue microenvironment or to perform high-throughput drug screening or toxicology. − Besides, microfluidics also emerged as a fascinating approach for the microengineering of hydrogels, including continuous fabrication of hydrogel microfibers. − Hydrogel solutions are injected into the inlet of a microfluidic chip, delivered through microchannels in a laminar flow, and directly extruded from the outlet of microchannels or embedded syringe needles or glass capillaries . Once extruded, hydrogel solutions can be rapidly cross-linked by various gelation methods, including UV light, ionic or chemical cross-linking, and solvent exchange, thus enabling the fabrication of meter-long hydrogel microfibers in a relatively short time .…”

Human Organoids and Organs‐on‐Chips for Addressing COVID‐19 Challenges

“…[63] Other engineering strategies such as biomaterials and biofabrication technologies can also be integrated with organoid and organ chip models to improve their functionality to advance their translational applications. [64][65][66][67] The use of defined hydrogels served as could mimic native 3D matrices and steer organoid morphogenesis by spatiotemporal control over tissue self-organization and microenvironmental cues. [66,68,69] More recently, Gjorevski et al developed hydrogel microfabrication-based approaches to spatiotemporally control the morphogenesis of intestinal organoids with defined shape and structure, which may contribute to identify the potential mechanisms of tissue morphogenesis.…”

“…[ 63 ] Other engineering strategies such as biomaterials and biofabrication technologies can also be integrated with organoid and organ chip models to improve their functionality to advance their translational applications. [ 64 , 65 , 66 , 67 ] The use of defined hydrogels served as could mimic native 3D matrices and steer organoid morphogenesis by spatiotemporal control over tissue self‐organization and microenvironmental cues. [ 66 , 68 , 69 ] More recently, Gjorevski et al.…”

Precision oncology using ex vivo technology: a step towards individualised cancer care?

“…This has accelerated the development of chips to study normal physiology (Ref. 73) Chip-based technology has also been utilised to study interactions between the tumour and extracellular environment, as well as other tumour properties, such as epithelial and mesenchymal transition, angiogenesis, tumour invasion, cell migration and metastasis. The technology is particularly applicable to luminal models, where the flow of substrate/biomarkers can be detected in real time.…”