3D bioprinting in basic biomedical research: aspirations, limitations and opportunities
Assistant Professor, Department of Physiology and Pathophysiology, University of Manitoba
Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba
Dr. Adrian West was trained in ‘classic’ Physiology at the University of Western Australia, using traditional organ bath techniques to study how mechanical strain regulates force development in airway smooth muscle. Realising that engineers get to play with the coolest toys, Adrian undertook his second postdoc in Biomedical Engineering at Dalhousie University, where he used novel tissue engineering techniques to study how changes in tissue stiffness might contribute to asthma. At the University of Manitoba, Adrian’s independent research program now uses 3D bioprinting technology to create physiologically-relevant experimental models of multiple muscle tissues, focussing on how the extracellular matrix and fibroblasts modulate contractile function in health and disease.
