Description du projet
Utiliser des tissus bio-imprimés pour prévenir l’arthrose
Les troubles musculo-squelettiques comme l’arthrose – une maladie dégénérative affectant des millions de personnes dans le monde – sont les causes les plus courantes de douleurs chroniques, d’invalidité et de morbidité. Les traitements actuels sont limités dans leur efficacité. Alors que la régénération musculo-squelettique est devenue un domaine de recherche important, les stratégies de régénération ont échoué jusqu’à présent à produire des tissus imitant l’incroyable complexité structurelle des tissus natifs, limitant considérablement leur utilité clinique. Dans ce contexte, le projet 4D-BOUNDARIES, financé par l’UE, utilisera des technologies de bioimpression 3D pour concevoir, pour la première fois, des greffes de cartilage et de ménisque spécifiques au patient qui imitent l’anatomie interne et externe et les propriétés mécaniques anisotropes des tissus natifs. Dans le cas de l’arthrose, la capacité de bio-imprimer de tels tissus fonctionnels pourrait prévenir son développement.
Objectif
Regeneration of musculoskeletal tissues requires engineered grafts that mimic the heterogeneous and anisotropic structure and mechanics of the native tissue. Despite decades of research, existing regenerative strategies have failed to produce tissues mimicking this exquisite structural complexity, dramatically limiting their clinical utility. Clues to addressing this grand challenge can be found in normal tissue development, which relies upon both the self-organizing potential of stem cells as well as key physical instructions from the microenvironment to establish final tissue architectures. Recognising this, the goal of 4D-BOUNDARIES is to leverage emerging 3D bioprinting technologies to provide precise physical boundary conditions and spatially localised morphogens to self-organizing cells and cellular aggregates to engineer structurally anisotropic and mechanically functional musculoskeletal tissues. To realise this goal, 4D-BOUNDARIES will build upon applicant’s extensive expertise in bioprinting and bioink development to produce two new biofabrication platforms that provide temporary guiding structures to self-organizing tissues. To demonstrate the utility of these bioprinting platforms they will be used to engineer, for the first time, patient-specific cartilage and meniscal grafts that mimic the internal and external anatomy and anisotropic mechanical properties of the native tissues. The ability to bioprint such functional tissues will transform the field of orthopaedic medicine, providing grafts to biologically resurface large areas of damaged articular cartilage and meniscus and thereby prevent the development of osteoarthritis – a debilitating disease affecting millions of people worldwide. The impact of 4D-BOUNDARIES will not be limited to the orthopaedic space, as it is envisioned that these new bioprinting platforms will find numerous applications in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.
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ERC-ADG - Advanced GrantInstitution d’accueil
D02 CX56 DUBLIN 2
Irlande