Novel Benchtop Bioreactor for Tissue Engineering

Tufts University, Medford MA

Investigators

Abstract

This award supports the development of a novel bioreactor system by investigators at Tufts and Harvard Universities. The bioreactor will be able to provide a broad range of environmental stimuli for study of tissue engineering and basic aspects of tissue development. The goal of the project is to provide an improved reactor system that can be used to increase understanding of the effects of perfusion, gas transport, mechanical forces, and biochemical stimuli on cell and tissue differentiation in vitro. The proposed reactor is expected to reduce the need to develop specific reactors whose design is specific to the cells and tissues to be studied. This advanced reactor system will build upon an initial design that was intended to permit the application of complex multi-dimensional strain to cells growing on matrices in a reactor. This system was used successfully to induce differentiation of adult mesenchymal progenitor cells into ligament forming cells, without the need for exogenous cell signaling factors, a major advance in the field. The planned improvements include a multi-dimensional force monitoring system, reactor vessel position control systems to increase options for cell seeding, and thorough fluid mechanics characterization of the reactor vessel and system to explore developmental cascades for a variety of tissues, as well as fundamental studies of cellular and tissue responses. Software for user programmable features (process variables, timing, data and sample collection) will be included. The system has the potential to become a platform used widely in applied and basic investigations of the environmental and chemical signals that lead individual cells to form well-differentiated tissues.