High throughput efficiency is a requirement of the modern drug discovery process and biomaterial testing. To achieve it, cost-effective methodologies to build 3D native-like microenvironements are needed, and these are in fact missing from the current research and industrial landscapes. One major reason for this is the inability of current sample production techniques to effectively build 3D gradient libraries that would allow the obtention of continuous readings in a way that could be considered high throughput
Hydrogels are increasingly used as scaffolds due to their capability to mimick microenvironmental conditions similar to those of the native extracellular matrix. However, drawbacks associated with current hydrogel production and processing methodologies, such as crosslinking protocols and microfluidic approaches for bioprinting, impede adequate standardization, replicability and efficiency that would allow high throughput yield and clinical relevance.
In PATCHED, all of these drawbacks are addressed by presenting a technology capable of encapsulating living cells within a hydrogel fiber, in a variety of different patterns, each of which simulating physiological interactions that occur between different types of human tissues. This allows a customizable platform that can be used to implement drug testing in different living micro tissues present in a hydrogel fiber. In addition, the gradient and segmentation technologies proposed in the project allow for the production of a diverse range of conditions within the fiber and to test a new compound across all of those conditions in a single test. Such a revolutionary approach has the potential to bring dramatic reductions in the costs of pre-clinical testing of new drugs.
