[{"command":"openDialog","selector":"#drupal-modal","settings":null,"data":"\u003Cdiv id=\u0022republish_modal_form\u0022\u003E\u003Cform class=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form ecl-form\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 action=\u0022\/en\/article\/modal\/15072\u0022 method=\u0022post\u0022 id=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 accept-charset=\u0022UTF-8\u0022\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHorizon articles can be republished for free under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.\u003C\/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp\u003EYou must give appropriate credit. We ask you to do this by:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n      1) Using the original journalist\u0027s byline\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n      2) Linking back to our original story\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n      3) Using the following text in the footer: This article was originally published in \u003Ca href=\u0027#\u0027\u003EHorizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp\u003ESee our full republication guidelines \u003Ca href=\u0027\/horizon-magazine\/republish-our-stories\u0027\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp\u003EHTML for this article, including the attribution and page view counter, is below:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022js-form-item form-item js-form-type-textarea form-item-body-content js-form-item-body-content ecl-form-group ecl-form-group--text-area form-no-label ecl-u-mv-m\u0022\u003E\n        \n\u003Cdiv\u003E\n  \u003Ctextarea data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 aria-describedby=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 id=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 name=\u0022body_content\u0022 rows=\u00225\u0022 cols=\u002260\u0022 class=\u0022form-textarea ecl-text-area\u0022\u003E\u003Ch2\u003E3D printing gets a living upgrade\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENature has spent billions of years perfecting the art of building with living cells. A team of researchers is now learning from that process \u2013 and finding ways to speed it up.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFor Massimo Vassalli, professor of bioengineering at the University of Glasgow, the goal is to understand not only how living tissues form, but how they can be recreated in the laboratory.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EVassalli is the scientific coordinator of PRISM-LT, a five-year EU-funded project which runs until 2027. The team is developing a 3D bioprinting platform to create complex living tissues, with applications ranging from biomedical research to cultivated meat.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAt the heart of the project is a concept that sounds almost futuristic: engineered living materials, or ELMs.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThese are materials made partly or entirely from living cells \u2013 including microorganisms such as bacteria or fungi \u2013 that can grow, respond and adapt to their environment. ELMs can self-organise and self-repair in ways conventional static materials cannot.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cEngineered living materials can have additional and dynamic features that we simply can\u2019t replicate in traditional static materials,\u201d said Vassalli.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EBuilding with living cells\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EELMs could transform industries from healthcare to food production, but turning that potential into reality means solving a hard biological problem: how to print living cells into complex structures without killing them or losing control of how they develop.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe PRISM-LT team is tackling this by building living tissues from tiny capsules containing living cells and a gel-like scaffold material known as bioink.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cRather than printing a continuous stream of bioink, we work with encapsulated living building blocks,\u201d explained Laura Martinelli, project coordinator of PRISM-LT and CEO of In Society, a research organisation based in Udine, Italy.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\u0022text-center text-blue font-bold text-2xl w-full lg:w-1\/2 border-2 border-blue p-12 my-8 lg:m-12 lg:-ml-16 float-left\u0022\u003E\n  \u003Cspan class=\u0022text-5xl rotate-180\u0022\u003E\u201c\u003C\/span\u003E\n  \u003Cp class=\u0022font-serif italic\u0022\u003EEngineered living materials can have additional and dynamic features that we simply can\u2019t replicate in traditional static materials.\u003C\/p\u003E\n  \u003Cfooter\u003E\n    \u003Ccite class=\u0022not-italic font-normal text-sm text-black\u0022\u003EMassimo Vassalli, PRISM-LT \u003C\/cite\u003E\n  \u003C\/footer\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThese capsules can either be precisely positioned by a robotic arm or bioprinted layer by layer to create complex tissue architectures.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EConventional methods print cells in a continuous flow of material, without the biological guidance that living microorganisms can provide. Here, each capsule is a biological unit carrying both the scaffold and engineered microbes that help steer the cells as they develop.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThose microbes have been genetically engineered to act as biological guides. They sense when stem cells \u2013 cells that can develop into many different tissue types \u2013 begin to transform, and respond by releasing chemical signals known as growth factors that direct them toward the desired tissue type.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe manufacturing process is fast, taking anywhere from minutes to an hour. What follows is slower: a maturation period of around three weeks, during which stem cells develop into bone, fat or muscle tissue. The team can currently produce roughly one square centimetre of thin tissue and is working toward a one cubic centimetre block.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhat makes this especially tricky is that the process requires placing living components that do not naturally belong together in the same environment.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe need to create a symbiotic relationship between two systems that were not made to live together, such as yeast and stem cells,\u201d said Vassalli. \u201cThe main challenge is to create conditions that are good enough for yeast or bacteria, as well as the stem cells while they differentiate.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis curiosity about biological interaction was at the origin of the project. \u201cWe started this research because we were curious about this interaction,\u201d Vassalli said. \u201cIn essence, this is also how evolution occurred. Single-cell organisms interacted and evolved into nature as we know it.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EFrom bone marrow to the dinner plate\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe researchers are working to recreate two specific tissue types. One is the interface between bone and fatty tissue found in bone marrow for biomedical research.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe other is muscle-fat structures which replicate the fat streaks that give real meat its texture and flavour, a quality that has long eluded cultivated, or lab-grown, meat.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe platform will also be used to create miniature tissue models that mimic the structure of human organs, which could be used in drug testing and to support personalised medicine.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe project aims to deliver a platform that can engineer different tissues serving very different purposes, but using the same principles,\u201d said Martinelli.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\u0022text-center text-blue font-bold text-2xl w-full lg:w-1\/2 border-2 border-blue p-12 my-8 lg:m-12 lg:-ml-16 float-left\u0022\u003E\n  \u003Cspan class=\u0022text-5xl rotate-180\u0022\u003E\u201c\u003C\/span\u003E\n  \u003Cp class=\u0022font-serif italic\u0022\u003EThanks to our bioprinting technology, we can achieve the right texture in alternative meats.\u003C\/p\u003E\n  \u003Cfooter\u003E\n    \u003Ccite class=\u0022not-italic font-normal text-sm text-black\u0022\u003ELaura Martinelli, PRISM-LT\u003C\/cite\u003E\n  \u003C\/footer\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn the health domain, the focus is on building 3D bone marrow models to study drugs for conditions that affect it, such as leukaemia.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOn the food side, achieving the right fat distribution matters greatly for consumer acceptance\u003Cstrong\u003E.\u003C\/strong\u003E \u201cThanks to our bioprinting technology, we can achieve the right texture in alternative meats, which creates an opportunity to bring it to the market,\u201d said Martinelli.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBringing the technology to the public will require time. \u201cWe are still far from real-world applications,\u201d she said. \u201cWe focus on principles and mechanisms to see what is feasible. However, we are already taking the future challenges into account.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EConsumer perception is one of those challenges. When developing cultivated meat, the researchers chose to work with yeast rather than bacteria. \u201cIt would be difficult to explain to consumers that the meat was created using bacteria,\u201d Martinelli said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EBeyond the lab: the regulatory frontier\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EScientific progress is only part of the challenge. Getting engineered living materials into medicine or food production will also require new regulatory thinking.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBecause ELMs combine living cells and, in some cases, genetically modified microorganisms, they do not fit neatly into existing regulatory frameworks \u2013 designed for conventional medicines or standard food products, not materials that are, in a sense, alive.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn collaboration with the European Innovation Council, the team is already engaging with regulators, including the European Medicines Agency, to explore what rules and approvals these materials might eventually need.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe need to reach a new attitude toward this technology,\u201d said Martinelli. \u201cThe collaboration helps us create a pathway towards the use of ELMs.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EVassalli added that ELMs could be \u201cextremely powerful\u201d if widely applied. \u201cWhen we started the project, we had two main questions: is this feasible, and is it scalable? We can now say that it is feasible.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EScalability is the next challenge. If the team succeeds, it could be a step closer to a future where living materials take their place alongside the conventional ones we already take for granted.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EResearch in this article was partly funded by the European Innovation Council (EIC). The views of the interviewees don\u2019t necessarily reflect those of the European Commission. 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