Biofabrication for Drug Testing

Our goal is to develop innovative cell culture technologies for the production of relevant cell culture models for drug testing and the development of new cell-based therapies.
To achieve this, cells should be cultured in the most natural, body-like environment possible at each point in the culture – from isolation (1) to proliferation, to production of stem cells and stem cell products (2), final differentiation (3) or subsequent drug testing (4). To ensure physiological conditions during culture, we develop and use 3D cell culture technologies and bioreactor systems, which are operated in a hypoxic (oxygen-reduced) environment. Under such physiological culture conditions, cells behave more like they do in the human body – making research results more meaningful and clinically relevant.

To obtain progenitor and stem cells from donor tissue, artificial 2D plastic surfaces (T-flask, Petri dish, etc.) are commonly used for culture. However, this is not physiological. We are developing new methods to isolate stem cells from a naturally 3D tissue directly back into a 3D environment - completely without contact to commonly used 2D surfaces. For this purpose, we use different hydrogels and adapt them to the respective donor tissue. We have already established a system that allows the direct isolation of stem cells from adipose tissue in a hydrogel.

Mesenchymal stem cells have an extraordinary potential for therapeutic applications in the field of regenerative medicine. On the one hand, this heterogeneous population of cells can contribute to the regeneration of damaged tissue, but can also be used for the regulation of the immune system. This is of particular interest in systemic inflammatory states. Also, extracellular vesicles (EVs) secreted by stem cells have therapeutic effects, like stem cells themselves, and are therefore of great interest.

Since it has also been confirmed for the production of stem cells and their products that physiological cell culture conditions can improve the therapeutic potential, we are also developing methods for this field to produce stem cells and stem cell EVs in 3D and under defined physiological conditions in customized bioreactors.