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Volume 9
Journal of Biotechnology & Biomaterials
ISSN: 2155-952X
Biomaterials 2019
February 25-26, 2019
February 25-26, 2019 | London, UK
4
th
Annual Conference and Expo on
Biomaterials
Microfluidics fabrication of ECM-based microstructures and their 3D printing
Shaohua Ma
Tsinghua Berkeley Shenzhen Institute, P R China
S
oft microtissues comprising living cells and the supportive matrices have been attracting growing research attention by their
potential as in vitro organ models that acquires the patient’s heterogeneity, as well as building blocks for artificial organs
or regenerative tissues. To recapitulate the native tissue structures and functions in vivo, the engineered microtissues shall
recapitulate the mechanical and biological properties of the matrices in their native counterpart tissues. Using extracellular
matrix (ECM) or ECM-derived materials is an option. However, the structural components of natural ECM are low in modulus
(usually less than 1000 Pascal) and slow-gelling (generally taking tens of minutes to gel at 37°C), which may challenge the
structural integrity in engineering and raise limitation in the production rate. Microfluidics has been known for its capability to
produce monodisperse microstructures in high-throughput. This talk summarizes our progress on microfluidics fabrication of
ECM-based microstructures and soft microtissues, and the challenges still faced by this technique. It also covers the chemical
and physical functionalization of ECM-like materials to render higher compatibility with biomanufacturing, without sacrificing
their biological competence.
ma.shaohua@sz.tsinghua.edu.cnJ Biotechnol Biomater 2019, Volume 9
DOI: 10.4172/2155-952X-C1-113