Job description
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) have emerged as powerful nanoparticles for tissue engineering due to their cargo of proteins, lipids, and genetic materials, with remarkable non-immunogenic and regenerative potential. The use of EVs has proven to be translatable to clinical trials, for example for knee osteoarthritis and bone tissue defects. However, a major challenge of the use of EVs for implants that is impairing its progress is the difficulty of EVs to be retained in the target tissue. To solve this problem, EVs have been encapsulated in injectable hydrogels to achieve increased local site retention and slower release. Yet, the lack of defined structure and porosity are weakening the EV functionality. To overcome these limitations, bioprinting of EV-based hydrogels with refined control on tissue architecture holds advantageous features. Just a few published studies have investigated the use of 3D bioprinted-EVs for tissue engineering applications and this is the core of this PhD project.
The project will be focused on: 1) material science for developing strategies for efficient EVs retention into a protein-based hydrogel system; 2) study of the mechano-structural properties of the target tissue for designing promising architectures for bioprinting; 3) bioprinting technology for manufacturing constructs with refined control on tissue architecture, while establishing gradients of EVs and microenvironments for EVs retention; 4) long cell culture experiments for allowing the EVs actuation on cells after bioprinting; and 5) Mechanical and biological evaluation of the constructs regarding safety, effectiveness, immunomodulation and tissue regeneration.
This PhD project is part of the Biofabrication & Bioprinting Lab (BBT/UMCG) mission, that is, to pave the way for bioprinting of human EVs for opening a new era of medical implants.