We are rapidly approaching the time when synthetic substitutes of human organs will be viable for transplant. Significant breakthroughs in stem cell biology, tissue engineering and microfabrication have laid the foundation for microsystems to build such viable human tissues. Despite recent scientific breakthrough, however, current tissue engineering lacks the capability to generate large (&gt;1 in<sup>3</sup>) tissues that can sustain viability. Without an integrated blood vessel network, in fact, large tissue samples lose viability and die from the inside out. Here we present our work on engineered tissue scaffolds and microsystems to optimize the growth of continuous blood vessel networks, and thus large tissue models, grafts, and transplants. Enabling the generation of patent, high-volume blood vessel networks will provide a route to engineer “human-sized” tissues and organs.

Polymer-protein composites from microfluidics to manufacturing human blood vessels

256th National Meeting (2018)

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