3D culture of ovarian follicles in granular and nanofibrillar hydrogels.

3D culture of ovarian follicles in hydrogel matrices is an important emerging tool for basic scientific studies as well as clinical applications such as fertility preservation. For optimizing and scaling 3D culture of preantral follicles, there is a need for identifying biomaterial matrices that simplifies and improves the current culture procedures. At present, microencapsulation of follicles in alginate beads is the most commonly used approach.

Co-spray dried inhalable composite powders of ciprofloxacin and alginate oligosaccharide as anti-biofilm therapy.

The treatment of chronic respiratory infections caused by biofilm formation are extremely challenging owing to poor drug penetration into the complex biofilm structure and high drug resistance. Local delivery of an antibiotic together with a non-antibiotic adjuvant to the lungs could often enhance the therapeutic responses by targeting different bacterial growth pathways and minimizing drug resistance. In this study, we designed new inhalable dry powders containing ciprofloxacin (CIP) and OligoG (Oli, a low-molecular-weight alginate oligosaccharide impairing the mucoid biofilms by interacting with their cationic ions) to combat respiratory bacterial biofilm infections.

Microgel-Extracellular Matrix Composite Support for the Embedded 3D Printing of Human Neural Constructs.

The embedded 3D printing of cells inside a granular support medium has emerged in the past decade as a powerful approach for the freeform biofabrication of soft tissue constructs. However, granular gel formulations have been restricted to a limited number of biomaterials that allow for the cost-effective generation of large amounts of hydrogel microparticles. Therefore, granular gel support media have generally lacked the cell-adhesive and cell-instructive functions found in the native extracellular matrix (ECM).

Organotypic and Microphysiological Human Tissue Models for Drug Discovery and Development-Current State-of-the-Art and Future Perspectives.

The number of successful drug development projects has been stagnant for decades despite major breakthroughs in chemistry, molecular biology, and genetics. Unreliable target identification and poor translatability of preclinical models have been identified as major causes of failure. To improve predictions of clinical efficacy and safety, interest has shifted to three-dimensional culture methods in which human cells can retain many physiologically and functionally relevant phenotypes for extended periods of time.

Multi-material 3D printing of programmable and stretchable oromucosal patches for delivery of saquinavir.

Oromucosal patches for drug delivery allow fast onset of action and ability to circumvent hepatic first pass metabolism of drugs. While conventional fabrication methods such as solvent casting or hot melt extrusion are ideal for scalable production of low-cost delivery patches, these methods chiefly allow for simple, homogenous patch designs. As alternative, a multi-material direct-ink-write 3D printing for rapid fabrication of complex oromucosal patches with unique design features was demonstrated in the present study.

3D-Printed Soft Lithography for Complex Compartmentalized Microfluidic Neural Devices.

Compartmentalized microfluidic platforms are an invaluable tool in neuroscience research. However, harnessing the full potential of this technology remains hindered by the lack of a simple fabrication approach for the creation of intricate device architectures with high-aspect ratio features. Here, a hybrid additive manufacturing approach is presented for the fabrication of open-well compartmentalized neural devices that provides larger freedom of device design, removes the need for manual postprocessing, and allows an increase in the biocompatibility of the system.

Increased adsorption of histidine-tagged proteins onto tissue culture polystyrene.

In this study we compare histidine-tagged and native proteins with regards to adsorption properties. We observe significantly increased adsorption of proteins with an incorporated polyhistidine amino acid motif (HIS-tag) onto tissue culture polystyrene (TCPS) compared to similar proteins without a HIS-tag. The effect is not observed on polystyrene (PS).