Algorithmic Generation of Vascular Networks for 3D Printing
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Cambridge
Department Name: Engineering
Abstract
The relevant research area for this project is Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering. The aim is to develop new algorithmic design techniques to rapidly produce 3D printable vasculature templates at large sizes (far beyond what a human could manually design in CAD), with a particular focus on vascular structures found in liver tissue - the ultimate aim is to create artificial organs for transplantation. The optimality criterion for this is to maximise the volume of useful tissue which could be grown around such a network, subject to the constraints of cell survivability and manufacturability.
The limits of cell survival during the manufacturing process are not exactly known, and a part of this research will be to identify these by initially manufacturing smaller instances.
The limits of cell survival during the manufacturing process are not exactly known, and a part of this research will be to identify these by initially manufacturing smaller instances.
Organisations
Studentship Projects
| Project Reference | Relationship | Related To | Start | End | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EP/N509620/1 | 01/10/2016 | 30/09/2022 | |||
| 2105006 | Studentship | EP/N509620/1 | 01/10/2018 | 30/09/2021 | Andrew Guy |
| Description | Tissue engineering cannot progress beyond millimetre length scales without creating a replacement for the vasculature (blood vessels), as cells will be starved of oxygen and nutrients and will die in their own waste. To solve this, bioengineers have developed a number of strategies for creating perfusable channels in tissue constructs, but have lacked an automated design method that scales well. A novel algorithm for designing any desired number of interpenetrating pipe networks in a given target volume subject to constraints (physical, physiological and manufacturability) has been developed, allowing the design of complex tissue engineering constructs at the centimetre scale and beyond. The networks that are produced by this have been verified to be 3D printable and can be converted into channels in hydrogels (a type of tissue engineering material) using a multi-stage casting approach, and that cells can be kept alive in the gel around the channel networks. A recent collaboration has verified that simple networks designed using this approach may be manufactured in hydrogels using laser ablation without requiring any special modification, but has not yet investigated the survivability of cells using this method. The question is now: how much of an impact does the structure of the network have on the behaviour of the cells around it, or is it simply a matter of ensuring that cells are close enough to a channel to not die? In the latter case, the current strategy of minimising total manufacture cost (volume of material + energy to pump fluid) appears optimal. Otherwise, we may find that higher manufacturing costs may be offset by improved cell growth, modifying the optimal network design. |
| Exploitation Route | Collaborations have already been established in which the software is being used to create channel templates for practical tissue engineering purposes, and this is the primary aim of the project. These purposes include whole-organ engineering (regenerative medicine) and tissue samples / structured cultures (e.g. pharmaceutical testing, development of cell culturing techniques, artificial meat production). There may be an application in medical imaging, in which the software is used to generate large amounts of training data for machine learning approaches to segmenting blood vessels from image data. |
| Sectors | Healthcare,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology,Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology |
| URL | https://www-memti.eng.cam.ac.uk/people/copy3_of_research-themes/designing-3d-vascular-networks/view |