Biomedical Commons^™

3d Bioprinting Systems For The Study Of Mammary Development And Tumorigenesis, John Reid

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Understanding the microenvironmental factors that control cell function, differentiation, and stem cell renewal represent the forefront of developmental and cancer biology. To accurately recreate and model these dynamic interactions in vitro requires both precision-controlled deposition of multiple cell types and well-defined three-dimensional (3D) extracellular matrix (ECM). To achieve this goal, we hypothesized that accessible bioprinting technology would eliminate the experimental inconsistency and random cell-organoid formation associated with manual cell-matrix embedding techniques commonly used for 3D, in vitro cell cultures. The first objective of this study was to adapt a commercially-available, 3D printer into a 3D bioprinter. Goal-based computer simulations were …