Cell/tissue constructs have great potential to be used for disease modeling, drug discovery and tissue regeneration. To enable the advanced biofabrication of cell/tissue structures that mimic the in vivo counterpart, integration of the emerging technologies from various discipline are necessary, such as 3D additive manufacturing, genome editing and cell reprogramming, systems and synthetic biology, stem cell biology, computational modeling, micro and nanofabrication, material genomes and biomaterials. For example, the combination of 3D bioprinting, biomaterials and iPSC technology will enable the fabrication of personalized tissue constructs for precision medicine.
In particular, to enable advanced biofabrication of cells and tissues, developing new biomaterials is necessary. New biomaterials include new bio-printable materials, materials to enable self-assembly of cells or organoids, materials for cell expansion and stem cell differentiation, materials to improve the cell reprogramming efficiency, materials to facilitate the storage and transport of biomanufactured systems, and materials to integrate with non-biological systems.
This thematic issue of Acta Biomaterialia focuses on the area of biomaterials for advanced biofabrication of 3D cell/tissue constructs. This special issue is a collection of 25 high-quality research articles as well as 8 comprehensive review articles that cover the state-of-the-art technologies in this growing field.
To freely access the papers before the end of February, 2020, please visit this link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/acta-biomaterialia/vol/95/suppl/C.