Molecularly Engineered Biomaterials
Hydrogels, water-containing crosslinked polymer networks, are widely used in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, as their physicochemical properties resemble the native extracellular matrix (ECM) of soft tissues. Since cells within tissues are surrounded by a complex three-dimensional (3D) milieu that is remodeled over time, phototunable biomaterials which allow user-defined control of cells and their 3D microenvironment hold the promise to revolutionize the techniques in drug discovery and disease modeling. In this project, based on our skills in photochemistry and synthetic polymer chemistry, we aim to design and synthesize a series of photoresponsive hydrogels with high efficiency for light-based biofabrication across different length scales, such as fast tomographic volumetric bioprinting (VBP) and two-photon photopatterning in a spatially and temporally controlled fashion.
Collaborator:
Prof. Zhiquan Li, Guangdong University of Technology
Acknowledgements:
This project has received funding from the China Scholarship Council (2020-2024) and the Swiss National Science Foundation (2019-2023).
Publications:
1. Wanwan Qiu, Jenny Gehlen, Margherita Bernero, Christian Gehre, Gian Nutal Schädli, Ralph Müller and Xiao-Hua Qin. external pageA Synthetic Dynamic Polyvinyl Alcohol Photoresin for Fast Volumetric Bioprinting of Functional Ultrasoft Hydrogel Constructs. Advanced Functional Materials 2023, online, pp. 2214393.
2. Jenny Gehlen, Wanwan Qiu, Gian Nutal Schädli, Ralph Müller and Xiao-Hua Qin. external pageTomographic volumetric bioprinting of heterocellular bone-like tissues in seconds. Acta Biomaterialia 2022, vol. 156, pp. 49-60.
3. Wanwan Qiu, Peng Hu, Junzhe Zhu, Ren Liu, Zhiquan Li, Zhiyong Hu, Qidai Chen, Kurt Dietliker, Robert Liska. external pageCleavable Unimolecular Photoinitiators Based on Oxime-Ester Chemistry for Two-Photon Three-Dimensional Printing. ChemPhotoChem 2019, vol. 3, pp.1090.