Tissue Engineering Takes Shape
Personalized grafts, bioinks, and off-the-shelf tissues are advancing regenerative medicine toward broader clinical use. The post Tissue Engineering Takes Shape appeared first on GEN - Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News .
Tissue engineering is progressing from a daring concept to a practical medical solution. The field combines biology, materials science, and engineering to repair or replace damaged human tissues and organs. Some strategies focus on personalized medicine, using a patient's own cells and materials, while others aim to create off-the-shelf engineered products for widespread use. Experts in the field shared insights into the latest advancements in tissue engineering.
Jordan Lancaster, CEO of Avery Therapeutics, explained the company's approach to heart failure. Current treatments manage symptoms but fail to address the root cause of the disease—the loss of functioning cardiomyocytes and fibrosis. Lancaster's team is developing a "living band-aid" composed of an allogeneic cardiac patch made from a proprietary mix of human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived cardiomyocytes and fibroblasts embedded in a bioresorbable matrix.
This approach creates a localized immunomodulatory response that drives disease repair, recruiting immune precursor cells to initiate repair.
Tissue engineering also faces fundamental challenges, such as finding safe and reproducible biomaterials, recreating complex biological and mechanical environments of human tissue, vascularization, and scaling up manufacturing. Yehiel Tal, CEO of CollPlant Biotechnologies, highlighted these issues while discussing the company's efforts to address them.
CollPlant Biotechnologies uses a proprietary plant-derived recombinant human type 1 collagen (rhCollagen) platform for its bioinks. The bioinks support cell viability and provide the necessary printability, structural stability, degradation profile, and mechanical properties for functional tissue formation. Tal's team has created 3D-bioprinted regenerative breast implants composed of rhCollagen and biodegradable biopolymers.
These implants provide structural support, promote vascularization, and support tissue ingrowth, gradually degrading as the patient's own tissue replaces the implant. CollPlant Biotechnologies is currently in preclinical development for these implants and aims to expand its work into other areas of regenerative medicine and medical aesthetics.
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