Cell-loaded microgels as mechanical protection and controlled microenvironment for cells in bioinks (A06)

• Subject Area: Biomaterials
• Term: since 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 326998133

Aim of this project is the generation of cell-loaded microgels with uniform size and their establishment as additives in bioinks. The microgels shall on the one side act as mechanical protection from shearforces during printing and thereby extend the biofabrication window towards bioinks with higher viscosity and towards higher shear forces. In addition to that, biochemical functionalization and adjusting microgel degradability shall be used to tailor the microenvironment of the encapsulated cells and control their behavior. Prospectively, this project aims at establishing suspensions of cell-loaded microgels as bioink especially for the simultaneous printing of different cell types.

• DFG Programme: CRC/Transregios
• Subproject of: TRR 225: From the fundamentals of biofabrication towards functional tissue models
• Applicant Institution: Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg
• Project Heads: Professor Dr. Stephan Förster; Professor Dr. Jürgen Groll