Guest Editors
Binata Joddar
University of Texas, El Paso
Binata Joddar, PhD, is an Associate Professor in Biomedical Engineering in the Department of Metallurgy, Materials and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Texas at El Paso. She has published 46 peer-reviewed articles and reviews in high impact journals, numerous patents and is well cited. She has served as an Editor for Scientific Reports (Nature) and a reviewer for Biomaterials, Acta Biomaterialia, and Tissue Engineering. Dr. Joddar’s research is multidisciplinary in nature and based on thrust areas involving Materials Sciences and Tissue Engineering. Joddar has more than 10 years of experience in stem cells for tissue engineering and assembly of human complex tissue models via 3D bioprinting. We actively use advanced fabrication techniques for biofabrication of robust tissue models. Our laboratory also possesses expertise in advanced material based scaffold fabrication for biomimicry. We are primarily interested in utilizing biomaterials to grow stem cells for either mimicking healthy tissues such as in the heart wall, or mimicking diseased tissues such as in Diabetic Cardiomyopathy (DCM). Dr. Joddar has given over 20 invited talks including presenting at the Gordon Research conference, USA, and at the National Institute of Materials Sciences (NIMS) at Tsukuba, Japan.
Stephanie Willerth
University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Stephanie Willerth, PhD, is a Full Professor in Biomedical Engineering and holds a Canada Research Chair in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Victoria where she has dual appointments in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Division of Medical Sciences. She serves as the Acting Director of the Centre for Biomedical Research and the Biomedical Engineering undergraduate program at the University of Victoria. She has also served as the President of the Canadian Biomaterials Society. She runs an active research group whose focus is developing innovative methods of engineering tissues, including the use of 3D printing to generate neural tissues using stem cells for disease modeling and drug screening applications. Her research group has published 58 peer reviewed journal articles and 10 book chapters since its formation in 2010. Dr. Willerth has given over 60 invited talks, including presenting at the Eindhoven University of Technology, University of Washington, the Universidade Federal de São Paulo, the University of California-Los Angeles, and at Purdue University as well as at major conferences, such as the 3rd Annual Mid-Atlantic Biomanufacturing Symposium and the 2018 Till and McCulloch meeting.
Collection Overview
3D bioprinting of single type cell-based constructs has significantly advanced the field of tissue engineering; however, challenges still exist in the fabrication of multiple cell-based constructs, especially complex tissue interfaces, which have the potential to address larger challenges in medicine and biology. Engineering viable multiple cell-based constructs requires the interaction of varying cell types in an instructive environment and may be accomplished via bottom-up or top-down techniques. In the bottom-up technique, a single cell-system is biofabricated as a subunit or a building block using a suitable environment, e.g. a scaffold with specific growth factors. These subunits, assembled using various cell types with specific functionalities, could be ultimately unified into a single platform to perform supportive tasks that lead to expanding the functionality of the system. In the top-down approach, heterocellular aggregates are co-cultured (co-printed) at the same time to represent the diversity of a cell population in the target tissue type. Integrated and adaptable platforms for the fabrication of such multi-cellular modules and their characterization have been lacking.
This issue will highlight new efforts in the printing of multiple cell-based constructs, especially the creation of complex muscle-tissue interfaces, which can pave the way for the printing of multidimensional cell-based organs in the near future. Target applications may include biofabrication of neuromuscular junction mimics to better understand the progression of neurodegenerative diseases or drug screening for neuromuscular diseases in an in vitro platform. Other examples could include the interface found in a neurovascular junction, which may be very important toward the study of brain vascular diseases, such as stroke.
Articles
Assessing Functional Metrics of Skeletal Muscle Health in Human Skeletal Muscle Microtissues
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Cited by 7
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2021
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