Scientists at Harvard‘s John A. Paulson School for Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have invented a 3D printing method that produces thick, vascularized tissues using human stem cells, an extracellular matrix, and conduits filled with endothelial blood vessel cells. This form of engineered biological material has applications in experimentation with new medicinal compounds, as well as providing more robust tissue repair and regeneration options to physicians and their patients in the future.

Jennifer A. Lewis, Sc.D., a Hansörg Wyss Professor of Biologically Inspired Engineering at SEAS, and her team have increased the thickness of previously engineered tissue specimens nearly tenfold. The thickness of this vascularized tissue allows it to sustain more nutrients and cell growth factors than previous iterations of engineered biological material. The team at SEAS has been able to sustain the functioning tissues for more than six weeks.

Click here to read the publication in the journal of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS).