Wake Forest Teams Win NASA Challenge with Functional 3D Printed Liver Tissues

The first and second place winners in NASA’s Vascular Tissue Challenge have created 3D printed lab-grown human liver tissues. The two teams of scientists, both from the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM) in Winston-Salem, North Carolina were able to construct a cube-shaped tissue capable of functioning for 30 days in the lab by using bioprinting. Team Winston, the winner, will not only receive $300,000 but will potentially able to advance its research aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The research could be revolutionary for studying how radiation, microgravity and other issues impact the cells and organs in the human body.

The Vascular Tissue Challenge is part of the Centennial Challenges started by NASA in 2005 to engage the public in the development of advanced technology. The goal of the Vascular Tissue Challenge in particular was to create thick, metabolically-functional human vascularized organ tissue in a controlled environment. This challenge is especially difficult as the teams were required to develop and test strategies to make tissues with functional artificial blood vessels, particularly difficult to recreate in engineered tissues. Though the competition was not specifically designed with 3D printing in mind, it makes sense that the winning teams used bioprinting due to the level of complexity that it allows.

The 3D printed liver tissues from Team Winston (photo credits: Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine)

Bioprinting, wherein bioinks filled with cells are used to 3D print a variety of parts including human organs and bones, has been gaining popularity in recent years. In this latest accomplishment, both team Winston and team WFIRM (2nd place) were able to create lab-grown human liver tissues that were not only strong enough to survive for 30 days in the lab, but also functioned in ways similar to those inside the human body. This is a huge milestone in the field of bioprinting, with future research potentially enabling the growth and long-term survival of thick three-dimensional tissues for research and therapeutic applications