3D bioprinting of scaffolds using live pancreatic islets or insulin producing cells to create a bionic pancreas

The project received funding under the third competition of the National Center for Research and Development in the STRATEGMED "PREVENTION AND TREATMENT OF CIVILIZATION DISEASES" program. The leader of the project is the Foundation for Research and Science Development based in Otwock. The consortium includes the Medical University of Warsaw, the Warsaw University of Technology, the M. Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Medispace sp.z o.o. based in Warsaw. The project responds to the needs of people with diabetes. In Poland, there are 2.5 million people with diabetes, including 200,000 people with type I diabetes. Islet transplantation has limited application due to the fact that the isolation process destroys the insular vascularization and the extracellular matrix. As a result, more than half of the islets die in the first days after transplantation. Tissue bioprinting is becoming more and more common. The constraints that must be overcome in order to obtain an islet scaffold (bionic pancreas) ready for transplantation are: establishing a suitable environment for island printing, bringing vascularity to the islets. The aim of the project is to build a functional bionic pancreas consisting of a matrix, vessels and islets, and in the future of insulin-producing cells. The study includes 5 work packages: research on building a bionic pancreas model, 3D-biodprinting of a bionic pancreas, flow culture, assessment of the quality and safety of a bionic pancreas, transplantation of a bionic pancreas on an animal model, implementation works. The results of the work will enable the production of a completely new product: the Bionic Pancreas.