Directing Cellular Functions Using Physical and Biochemical Cues

Cells respond to a combination of physical and biochemical cues within their extracellular environment, which regulate behaviours such as migration, proliferation, differentiation, and self-organisation. Biofabrication technologies provide opportunities to incorporate defined architectural features, including surface topography, matrix alignment, and orientation, alongside biochemical signals that influence cell function and tissue development. However, replicating the complexity of native microenvironments remains challenging. Different fabrication methods operate within limited resolution ranges, enabling the creation of specific structural features but often failing to capture the full spectrum of biological length scales. While larger-scale architectures can be readily fabricated, finer microscale features frequently rely on cell-driven self-assembly processes that are slower and difficult to spatially control. Similarly, advances in biomaterial chemistry and fabrication have improved the delivery of bioactive molecules, yet precise control over their concentration, release kinetics, and spatial presentation remains limited. These factors are critical because cellular responses depend not only on the presence of biochemical signals but also on how they are distributed and presented over time. Uniform signal delivery often fails to reproduce the gradients and dynamic microenvironments that guide coordinated cellular behaviour in vivo. Together, these challenges highlight the need for biofabrication strategies that integrate spatially and temporally controlled physical and biochemical cues to better direct cell behaviour and tissue formation. This lecture will cover different advances in light-based macromolecular chemistry and lithography-based biofabrication modalities, to allow spatiotemporal presentation of physical and biochemical cues. Specific examples include applications in diabetic wound ulcers, cardiac tissue models and musculoskeletal regeneration.  

Professor Lim is currently an Australian Research Council Future Fellow and the Co-Director of the Sydney Biomanufacturing Incubator at the University of Sydney, Australia. His research focuses on using light-activated macromolecular chemistry to design dynamic biomaterials for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications, including musculoskeletal regeneration, cardiovascular health and chronic wounds. He has generated >150 journal publications and raised a total of >$13 Million research grant funding ($8 Million as CIA). He is the Past-President of the Australasian Society for Biomaterials & Tissue Engineering, Treasurer of the International Society for Biofabrication and Committee Member of Standards Australia (HE-012 Surgical Implants). He has won >20 competitive national/international awards, included in the World’s Top 2% Scientist List by Stanford University since 2022. He currently serves on the Editorial Board of Biofabrication, Advanced Chemical Engineering, Advanced NanoBiomed Research, Tissue Engineering Part B, RSC Biomaterials Science, Macromolecular Bioscience and Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Medicine.