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Urinary bladder bioprinting for fully autologous transplantation

Project description

Bioprinting bladder tissue

Certain conditions, including inflammation and cancer, require augmentation of the urinary bladder. However, the conventional approach of using bowel tissue suffers from risks and post-surgery complications. The EU-funded UroPrint project proposes to engineer bladder tissue for autologous transplantation using laser-induced forward transfer (LIFT) bioprinting technology. Using a prototype bioprinter, researchers will graft primary urothelial and smooth muscle cells onto a natural scaffold ensuring high cell viability and mimicking the function of the human bladder. UroPrint is expected to improve clinical outcomes and the quality of life of patients by reducing hospitalisation.

Objective

A number of conditions, including trauma, inflammation, incontinence, overactive bladder, renal impairments, neurological disorders (like spinal cord injury or spina bifida) and cancer, require bladder augmentation. For almost a century now, the majority of cystoplasties utilize bowel segments (enterocystoplasty). This, almost a century years old, gold standard practice bears numerous risks and complications affecting the majority of patients, thus compromising the quality of life while burdening the health care systems. This has fuelled efforts towards the development of engineered bladder tissue. Advancements in bioprinting technologies are increasingly employed in regenerative medicine but mostly in smaller and less complicated tissues. UroPrint proposes the use of Laser Induced Forward Transfer (LIFT) to generate bladder tissue for autologous transplantation that would meet the biological, mechanical and functional properties of human bladder. To this end, primary urothelial and smooth muscle cells will be obtained from healthy donors and expanded in fully Good Medical Practice compliant methodologies. These will be combined with novel natural autologous scaffold material obtained from platelet lysates. Then, a novel approach in the generation of bladder transplant will be utilized, combining intestine denudation and in vivo printing during surgery using a novel prototype LIFT printer that achieved high spatial resolution (<10 μm), high cell viability (>95%) single-urothelial cells.

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RIA - Research and Innovation action

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(opens in new window) H2020-FETOPEN-2018-2020

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Coordinator

IDRYMA IATROVIOLOGIKON EREUNON AKADEMIAS ATHINON
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 769 875,00
Address
SORANOU EFESIOU 4
115 27 ATHINA
Greece

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Αττική Aττική Κεντρικός Τομέας Αθηνών
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 769 875,00

Participants (7)

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