Abstract

Bio-additive manufacturing

Jiankang He, Professor, Xian Jiaotong University

The application of additive manufacturing (AM) in biomedical and tissue engineering fields enables to precisely fabricate artificial constructs with patient-specific geometries, biomimetic internal microstructures and even complex cellular organizations, which might potentially enhance their biological functions in vitro and in vivo. Here we will present our bio-additive manufacturing researches in Xi'an Jiaotong University of China with three parts. The first part is related to the use of AM techniques to customize non-living implants with patient-specific geometry as well as their clinical applicantions, such as mandible and knee joint prosthesis. In the second part, AM-based fabrication of biodegradable bone/cartilage/ligament scaffolds with biomimetic microstructures and gradient interface will be presented. In the third part, we will introduce our latest bio-additive manufacturing strategies to fabricate microfluidic porous scaffolds and cell-laden hydrogels for the regeneration of vascularized organs such as liver. We mainly investigate the relationship between scaffold structures and tissue functions, and the ultimate goal is to fabricate living tissue-engineered constructs.