This invention uses a scalable droplet interface bilayer method to create customizable artificial tissues from water droplets. The tissues are tunable for conductivity, stiffness, and self-healing, enabling applications like 3D bioprinting and selective electrically driven separations.
Background
The field of tissue engineering has long sought to develop biomimetic constructs that address the challenges in biomedical, environmental, and technological applications. There is a pressing need for reliable systems that can safely replicate the dynamic functions of natural tissues, enabling advances in drug screening, regenerative medicine, and soft robotics. This necessity is driven by the limitations of conventional methods, which often struggle to balance structural precision with high-throughput production, ultimately hindering innovation in diverse application areas.
Current approaches face significant hurdles such as labor-intensive multi-step procedures that compromise the uniformity and scalability of fabricated tissues. The intricate integration of functional features essential for emulating native electrical and mechanical behaviors remains problematic. Moreover, existing techniques often result in inconsistent structural integrity and limited adaptability to incorporate necessary modifications for enhanced performance. These constraints impede efforts to produce robust, customizable tissue analogs and underscore the need for more efficient solutions that ensure both high fidelity and practical scalability in tissue fabrication.
Technology description
The technology employs a scalable process to produce artificial tissues by forming water-in-oil emulsions using amphiphilic molecules that create water droplets encased in lipid or polymer monolayers. These droplets are then compacted via centrifugation into a jammed, gel-like network where adjacent droplets connect through droplet interface bilayers.
The resulting tissue displays viscoelastic properties, self-healing ability, and electrical behavior similar to an RC circuit, despite being over 99% water. Its features can be finely tuned by incorporating ion channels to impart conductivity or embedding hydrogels to augment structural rigidity. Additionally, the process supports 3D bioprinting techniques and the creation of layered membranes for selective, electrically driven separation of charged molecules.
What differentiates this technology is its impressive scalability and rapid production capabilities, generating millions of interconnected droplets within minutes and handling volumes from microliters to liters. Unlike traditional tissue fabrication methods, its simultaneous droplet creation and coating allow for high throughput and improved stability, especially when polymers replace natural lipids. This versatility, combined with post-production adjustability through additives and cross-linkable materials, paves the way for diverse applications ranging from biomedical devices and drug screening to environmental sensors and soft robotics.
Benefits
- Rapid, scalable production of artificial tissues from microliter to liter volumes
- Customizable mechanical and electrical properties through ion channel and hydrogel incorporation
- Self-healing, viscoelastic behavior enhancing tissue durability and integrity
- Compatibility with 3D bioprinting for creating complex, biomimetic structures
- Versatile application potential in environmental, medical, research, and technological fields
Commercial applications
- 3D bioprinted tissue bio-inks
- Electrically selective separation membranes
- Artificial organ scaffolds
- Drug screening platforms
Additional information
A scalable process fabricates artificial biological constructs by forming water-in-oil emulsions with amphiphilic surfactants that encapsulate aqueous droplets. Centrifugation compacts these into jammed assemblies, where droplet interface bilayers connect compartments. The resulting tissue-mimetic material exhibits viscoelasticity, self-healing, and adjustable electrical behavior, which can be tuned via ion channels or hydrogels. Applications include 3D bioprinting for biomimetic structures and electrically driven selective separation membranes.
