3D bioprinting continues to evolve as a promising tool in the field of personalized medicine. With this in mind, researchers at McMaster University in Ontario have developed a new bioink that mimics the mechanical and structural properties of lung tissue. In other words, this bioink enables the printing of tissues capable of contracting and “breathing,” just like human lungs. At this stage, the main priority is to promote medical research and the development of treatments. However, in the longer term, scientists are considering clinical applications, including lung repair through transplantation or implantation in patients with COPD or fibrosis.
Unlike other bioinks that require low temperatures for printing and can often lose their shape after printing, this new material retains complex structures while remaining stable at body temperature. Financially supported by McMaster University in 2024, this project led to the creation of the startup Tessella Biosciences, which already has its first customers and is receiving positive feedback.
From left to right, David González Martinez and José Morán-Mirabal working with bioink for lung tissue (Photo credit: Georgia Kirkos, McMaster University)
Why Develop a Bioink for Lung Tissue?
This project was born in response to a major constraint in respiratory disease research. Jeremy Hirota, Associate Professor of Medicine at McMaster University and co-founder of the start-up, was struggling to recreate realistic cellular environments, particularly for the study of conditions such as COPD and pulmonary fibrosis. “Lungs breathe. They open and close with every breath we take,” says Hirota, “but 95 to 99 per cent of the research we do in the lab is done on hard plastic dishes, whether it’s a petri dish or a tissue culture plate. It doesn’t take a scientist to understand that this hard plastic is not what your lungs are.”
To overcome this limitation, Hirota teamed up with José Moran-Mirabal, professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, and David Gonzalez Martinez, a doctoral student. This interdisciplinary collaboration resulted in a bioink specially formulated to reproduce the elasticity and stretchability of lung tissue, thanks to its adapted composition and rheology. The researchers describe this bioink as a “plug-and-play” solution, compatible with currently available 3D bioprinters. It allows complex three-dimensional structures to be produced in less than an hour, with high resolution. While it already shows promise for lung modeling and toxicity or drug response testing, the team is also considering future clinical applications. These include the manufacture of skin grafts for severe burn victims and functional fragments of lung tissue for repair or transplantation procedures. In the longer term, researchers are considering the possibility of biologically printing entire organs, a major ambition in the field of 3D bioprinting. However, they acknowledge that this goal still faces significant challenges, both scientific and regulatory.
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*Photo Credits: McMaster University