Dr. Pu Chen is a professor and the department chair of Biomedical Engineering at Wuhan University Taikang School of Medicine (School of Basic Medical Sciences). He is also the founder of the Tissue Engineering and Organ Manufacturing (TEOM) Lab at Wuhan University. Dr. Chen serves as a council member of the Chinese Society of Biomedical Engineering, a committee member of Organoid and Organ-on-a-Chip Subcommittee at the Chinese Society of Biomedical Engineering, and a committee member of Biosensing, Biochips, and Nanobiotechnology Subcommittee at the Chinese Society of Biotechnology. Dr. Chen obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in Optic Information Science and Technology from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in 2005 and his Doctor degree in Biomedical Engineering from the same university in 2011. From 2011 to 2016, he conducted postdoctoral research in stem cells and tissue engineering at Harvard Medical School and Stanford University School of Medicine in the United States. In 2017, he established the TEOM Lab at Wuhan University. Dr. Chen's research interests include pluripotent stem cells derived organoid-on-a-chip, and acoustic bioassembly. He has published over 60 papers in journals such as Advanced Materials, Biofabrication, and PLOS Pathogens, and translated 12 patents in China and the United States. His lab motto is “Integrating Science, Engineering, and Medicine: Innovation for Better Human Health Tomorrow.”

Topic title: Faraday Wave Bioassembly for Primary cell based 3D Biofabrication

Abstract:

3D Biofabrication is an essential basis of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Bioassembly is considered as a critical technical route for biofabrication and developed with diverse forms enabled by magnetic, acoustic, and optical fields [1]. However, most of the bioassembly techniques are not cytocompatible with primary cells that are highly sensitive to mechanical forces. Here, we demonstrate Faraday wave bioassembly to generate functional tissues from adult primary cells. Faraday wave bioassembly can generate diverse patterns with closely packed multicellular architecture at the liquid surface or the bottom of a liquid layer in less than ten seconds by tuning vibrational frequency and amplitude[2-3]. The closely packed primary cells enable contact-dependent intercellular communications via the gap and tight junctions, further permitting cell coordination, polarization, and formation of tissue-specific functions. Furthermore, Faraday wave bioassembly allows generation of centimeter-scale tissue construct in a parallel or scale-up manner. Faraday wave bioassembly also allows simultaneous assembly of density- or size-varied bioparticles to form spatially defined complementary or sandwiched cytoarchitecture[4]. Therefore, it is highly compatible with industrial applications. We demonstrate the construction of functional liver[3,4], neural[5], and cardiac tissue mimics using Faraday wave bioassembly[6]. qPCR, immunofluorescence, ELISA, and electrophysiological analysis indicated that these assembled tissues emulate original organ-specific protein expressions and functions, including albumin and urea secretion in liver tissues, neuro-electrophysical functions in neural tissues, and spontaneous beating in cardiac tissues. Additionally, the co-assembly of tissue parenchyma with endothelial cells permits the growth of microvascularized tissues. Overall, Faraday wave bioassembly is envisioned to facilitate the biofabrication of a variety of cell-based tissues, not limited to cell-based tissue meat for the food industry and bioengineered tissues for clinical use.

Faraday Wave Bioassembly, Acoustic Waves, Biofabrication, Tissue Engineering

References

[1]  J. Groll, T. Boland, et al. Biofabrication 8(1) (2016) 013001.

[2]  P. Chen, et al. Advanced Materials 26(34) (2014) 5936-41.

[3]  P. Chen, et al. Advanced Healthcare Materials 4(13) (2015) 1937-1943.

[4]  L. Gu, et al. Biofabrication 15(1) (2022).

[5]  T. Ren, et al. Adv Mater 32(8) (2020) e1905713.

[6]  V. Serpooshan, et al. Biomaterials 131 (2017) 47-57.