Dr James Armstrong is a Senior Research Fellow at Bristol Medical School (www.TheArmstrongGroup.co.uk) and co-founder of the University of Bristol spin-out company Impulsonics (www.Impulsonics.com). Since graduating from his PhD in 2015, he has been supported by three personal Fellowship awards from Arthritis Research UK (2015-2018), the Medical Research Council (2018-2021), and now a prestigious UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship (2021-2028). These major funding awards have enabled him to lead a programme of highly interdisciplinary and collaborative research focussed on using biomaterials, bioprinting, nanomaterials, and remote fields to engineer artificial tissues with structural and functional complexity. He is now expanding his research interests into organoids and organ-on-chip systems while also seeking to translate his technologies for applied biological modelling and regenerative medicine.

Topic title: Ultrasound-based biofabrication

Abstract:

My research is focussed on developing new bioengineering technologies that can provide control over the assembly of biomaterials, tissues and organoids. In this talk, I will focus on a technology that uses ultrasound standing waves to rapidly and remotely pattern living cells into tunable geometric arrays. I will explore how we have used this tool to fabricate biomaterials patterned with cells that can then be engineered into various anisotropic tissue constructs (e.g., skeletal muscle, cartilage, cardiac tissue). I will conclude the seminar with another acoustic technology: the use of ultrasound to trigger molecular processes, such as enzyme catalysis and hydrogelation. I will explore the design of this modular system and discuss how ultrasound has a unique set of properties that opens new biomedical opportunities.