Abstract

3D Bioprinting Personalized Neural Tissues For Drug Screening

Stephanie Willerth, Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Biomedical Engineering, University of Victoria

3D bioprinting can create living human tissues on demand based on specifications contained in a digital file. Such highly customized, physiologically-relevant 3D human tissue models can screen potential drug candidates as an alternative to expensive pre-clinical animal testing. The Willerth lab has developed a novel fibrin-based bioink for bioprinting neural tissues derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs), which can become any cell type found in the body. Here I will discuss the latest work from our group detailing the composition of our 3D bioprinted tissues and our new spin-off company - Axolotl Biosciences.