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NASA Will Announce Winners of Challenge to Engineer Human Tissue https://ift.tt/3fZCZeS During a live event on June 9, 2021, NASA will announce the first- and second-place winners of the Vascular Tissue Challenge, a prize competition to grow and sustain functioning tissue that could aid in deep space exploration. Eleven teams that include a diverse network of experts in tissue engineering, microgravity research, and regenerative medicine, as well as promising startups in the bioprinting field, compete for a $500,000 total prize purse to be divided among the first three projects to successfully create thick, metabolically functional human vascularized organ tissue in vitro in a controlled Earth environment. Part of NASA’s Centennial Challenges Program, the competition’s intended outcome is to increase the pace of bioengineering innovations and enable the growth of new tissues that could one day benefit the development of organ analogs, or models, used to study deep space environmental effects, such as radiation. According to NASA, studying these reactions will help create ways to mitigate the negative impact of space travel on humans during long-duration, deep space missions. Alternatively, on Earth, the vascularized tissue could be used in pharmaceutical testing or disease modeling and could even accelerate new research and development in the field of organ transplants.
As part of the competition, participants had to create human vascularized tissues for an organ – like the heart, lung, liver, or kidney – that is more than 0.39 inches (1 centimeter) thick and can maintain more than 85% survival of the required cells throughout a 30-day trial period. The teams had to demonstrate three successful trials with at least a 75% success rate to win an award. In addition to the laboratory trials, they also had to submit a proposal that details how they would further advance some aspect of their research through a microgravity experiment conducted on the International Space Station (ISS) U.S. National Laboratory. The following groups are competing to make bioengineered tissue a genuine possibility for the future:
Many of the aforementioned researchers and companies have dedicated years to perfecting their 3D bioprinting techniques, bioinks, and bioprinting hardware, so most participating teams have likely leveraged biofabrication technologies to create the vascularized tissues demanded by the NASA challenge. Cellink, Prellis Biologics, and Techshot have already created successful products that are currently being commercialized for tissue development worldwide. Techshot has even taken its technology one step further by sending two platforms, the 3D BioFabrication Facility (BFF) and the Techshot ADvanced Space Experiment Processor (ADSEP), to the ISS, where they are being used as the first-ever systems capable of manufacturing human tissue in orbital microgravity. Similarly, experts like Miller, Lee, and Ozbolat are well known for advancing tissue engineering and bioprinting. Miller and his colleagues have focused on creating exquisitely entangled vascular networks that mimic the body’s natural passageways for blood, air, lymph, and other vital fluids. Ozbolat is leveraging bioprinting technology to heal skin and bones, while Lee works closely with pioneering American bioengineer Anthony Atala to create biomaterial systems that improve cellular interactions. All of the teams have extensive knowledge in the biofabrication realm, so the competition will be fierce. However, the first team to demonstrate tissue survival and function for the duration of a 30-day trial will receive $300,000, while the two runner-ups that complete trials will win $100,000 each. Before the prize winners are announced, all the expert teams will answer questions about their tissue engineering techniques during a special episode of NASA Science Live, a popular online broadcast that takes viewers behind the scenes to explore the secrets of the universe. The episode will air at 3:00 PM Eastern Time on NASA Television, the NASA app, the agency’s website, NASA social media platforms, and YouTube channels, where viewers can submit questions using #AskNASA. Afterward, at 4:30 PM Eastern time, the final winners will be announced. Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com June 8, 2021 at 11:51AM
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