Tissue engineering is an emerging field that aims to regenerate natural tissues and create new tissues using biological cells, biomaterials, biotechnology, and clinical medicine. The main goals of tissue engineering include providing the methods for replacement and regeneration of damaged tissues and creating tissue-like models for disease research. Recently, our team also combined scaffolds and cells to fabricate the cell-laden artificial tissues by utilizing 3D-printing techniques to create bone- and cardiovascular- like tissues. By utilizing these artificial tissues, we hope that it will allow scientists to deeply investigate the mechanisms behind the reparation of damaged tissues in regenerative medicine.

In biofabrication/3D bioprinting, the goal is to build artificial tissues that resemble the biological counterpart. However, tissues are wonderfully complex structures, so to engineer artificial versions of them that function properly, we have to recreate their complexity. Our tissue engineering team developed 3D bioprinting techniques to build 3D tissue constructs with viable cells, biomaterials, and bioactive molecules in a systematic and automated fashion. Specifically, our main focus lies on printing multi-bioink, cell-laden bioink, extracellular matrix (ECM)-based materials, or natural materials. These materials mimic complex tissue structure models in vitro such as liver, bone, or cardiovascular structures. When the technology is combined with patient-derived cells, it produces patient-specific tissue constructs, which can be used for personalized therapy and also as a means to personalize treatment. As a leader in tissue engineering, we continue to push the frontier of biofabrication/3D bioprinting to enable personalized medicine.