Science AMA Series: We 3D-print self-assembling blood vessels and create human biological systems on a chip. Ask Us Anything!

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Hello Reddit! We're Monica Moya and Elizabeth Wheeler from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and we’re using 3D bioprinting techniques and special “bioink” to manufacture human-compatible tissues vascularized with self-assembling vessels and capillaries. We’ve engineered the printed tissue with human cells so that they grow toward nutrients, harvesting the ability of the human body to respond and develop complex vascular networks. This effort is part of a larger research project aimed at replicating the human body on a miniature scale, what we’re calling iCHIP (in vitro Chip-based Human Investigational Platform). It includes research into recreating the central and peripheral nervous systems, the blood-brain barrier, and the heart. This is seriously a new frontier in biology. If we’re successful, iCHIP could be used to develop new countermeasures against biological agents without having to use human subjects. But in order to get the various systems to work together properly, the “human on a chip” will need adequate plumbing. It’s like a house with all these separate rooms, and we’re the plumbers. We’re really excited about the work, and we’re here to talk about it. Ask us anything!

We will be back at 1 pm EST (10 am PST, 6 pm UTC) to answer your questions.

Monica Moya’s biography Monica Moya is a Research Engineer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Center for Micro and Nano Technology. She earned a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 2009. Her current research centers around using 3D printing to print living vascular structures for neural systems and tissue engineering applications. Select publications: http://ift.tt/1Q2pE2W.

Elizabeth Wheeler’s biography Elizabeth Wheeler is a chemical engineer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and a principal investigator for iCHIP, the In-vitro based Human Investigational Platform. She has expertise in medical engineering, microfluidics and bioinstrumentation. Select publications: http://ift.tt/1TzcFEu.

">Science AMA Series: We 3D-print self-assembling blood vessels and create human biological systems on a chip. Ask Us Anything!