Projects
Decellularized muscle as a scaffold for extraocular muscle tissue engineering KU Leuven
Injuries to skeletal muscle are dramatically impacting patient’s lives, limiting their daily activities. Depending on the defect, current treatment is either not possible or involves autologous tissue transfer, which leads to donor site morbidity and incomplete functional recovery. Tissue engineered muscle may provide an alternative for muscle repair and can also be used to study development, disease and drug effects in vitro. We propose to ...
Targeting tendon-bone junction regeneration: development of a gradient scaffold. Ghent University
The tendon-bone (T-B) junction is the transition zone from soft to hard tissue, prone to acute and overuse injuries in both human and equine athletes. Functional integration between tendon and bone remains a major challenge after injury, as the presence of inflammation affects the healing process, resulting in the formation of scar tissue. Tissue engineering strategies should be explored to support T-B regeneration. To this end, the ...
Bottom-up manufacturing of stabilised shaped and stimuli-responsive lipid vesicles as scaffold for therapeutic artificial cell systems KU Leuven
Cells are key components in many therapeutic interventions. From more commonplace erythrocytes (which are used worldwide every day to save thousands of lives) to novel stem cell-based and genetically modified lymphocyte-based therapies (such as CART-T cells, which have provided revolutionary treatments for incurable cancers), cell-based therapies have a great impact on current medical practice. Reproducing the therapeutic effects of CAR-T ...
Regulation of the protein phosphatase scaffold RepoMan during the cell cycle KU Leuven
Protein kinases and phosphatases are antagonistically acting enzymes that cooperate to control the speed, amplitude and specificity of phosphorylation signals in numerous cellular processes, including mitosis. Early mitotic events are characterized by bulk phosphorylation of specific proteins by kinases such as CDK1/Cyclin B and Aurora B. The mitotic exit depends on protein phosphatases, mainly PP1 and PP2A, which remove phosphate groups from ...
Nanocellulose-based functional cellular matrices KU Leuven
Flexible Multi Electrode Array for electrical cellular interfacing KU Leuven
Silicon is a suitable material for electrically interfacing with biological cells and tissues. However due to silicon’s high modulus and hardness relative to biological tissues, limits appear in an ability to recapitulate cellular systems in vitro. The focus here is the physical design and development of a multi electrode array that features global mechanical properties similar to in vivo tissue. Additional features may be explored such as ...
3D bioprinting of micro-vascularized tissues: combination of cellular spheroids and smart biomaterials. KU Leuven
The ultimate goal of tissue engineering is to fabricate functional human tissues and organs suitable
for regeneration or replacement of damaged or lost human organs. To date, the complex
histoarchitectural features of tissues and vascular network integration, can not be achieved in the
traditional scaffold based approach. Bioprinting holds remarkable promise for fabrication of 3D
vascularized tissues, given its ...
3D bioprinting of microvascularized tissues: combining cellular spheroids and smart biomaterials Ghent University
The ultimate goal of tissue engineering is to fabricate functional human tissues and organs suitable
for regeneration or replacement of damaged or lost human organs. To date, the complex
histoarchitectural features of tissues and vascular network integration, can not be achieved in the
traditional scaffold based approach. Bioprinting holds remarkable promise for fabrication of 3D
vascularized tissues, given its ...
Cellular and Extracellular Matrix-Mimetic Cues for Bioprinting the Next Generation of Regenerative Constructs KU Leuven
Large and complex bone fractures rarely heal. This is due to several reasons including the severely damaged surrounding environment, insufficient nutritional supply and the lack of a critical number of stem cells required to produce new bone tissue. Standard treatment of these fractures today involve autologous or allograft transplantation, limited by tissue availability, donor site morbidity and graft rejection. Subsequently, alternative ...