Felix Künzel

Master Student

Investigation of alginate di-aldehyde/gelatin (ADA-GEL) composite bioinks for biofabrication

Betreuer: Susanne Heid, Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini

With the advent of new technologies in 3D-printing and additive manufacturing in general, the interest in using these technologies for personalized medical applications has also increased. Alginate di-aldehyde (ADA) in combination with gelatin (GEL) has already been proven to be viable ink for such applications [1]. One approach to enhance the properties of ADA/GEL is to develop composites incorporating inorganic fillers such as bioactive glass nanoparticles, as demonstrated in a previous study carried out at the FAU Institute of Biomaterials [2].
This work aims to combine the properties of both materials and investigate a new family of composite inks made of ADA-GEL with bioactive glass fillers for the use in biofabrication. First, the ink will be produced and characterized with respect to its printability and chemical composition. Then, its use as bioink will be evaluated via cell viability studies, both in seeded structures and live cell printing. This project is being carried out in the framework of the DFG funded Collaborative Research Centre (SFB/TRR 225) “From the fundamentals of biofabrication towards functional tissue models”.

[1] Zehnder, T., Sarker, B., Boccaccini, A. R., & Detsch, R., Evaluation of an alginate–gelatine crosslinked hydrogel for bioplotting. Biofabrication, 7(2), (2015), 025001.

[2] Leite, A. Sarker, B., Zehnder, T., Silva, R., Mano, J., Boccaccini, A. R., Bioplotting of a bioactive alginate-dialdehyde-gelatin composite hydrogel containing bioactive glass nanoparticles, Biofabrication 8 (2016) 035005.