Robert Accolla, in collaboration with fellow graduate students Madison Deller,Taylor Lansberry, Smit Patel, and Jiapu Liang, and undergraduate student Amberlyn Simmons, recently published our findings on the use of 3D printed PDMS-based scaffolds for supporting fibrin-based vasculogenesis (i.e. the formation of blood vessel networks) outside of the body. This publication explored how the open pore structure of the 3D scaffold prevented the compaction and instability commonly observed for fibrin-only based approaches. This work has implications in not only improving the stability and structure of these benchtop formed networks, but easing the translation of these as vascularized implants.
Congrats to Robert and all collaborators!