Peripheral Nervous System Tissue Engineering for Medical and Cosmetic Testing Applications

ended

PLATFORMA is a commercially driven collaboration to produce novel high-content phenotypic platforms for screening cosmetics, pollutants and new therapeutics. We propose to create purpose-built, 3D modular human tissues supported by laser-printed bio-compatible scaffolds from which electro-physiological status of the cells can be monitored. Each tissue module will consist of multiple different cell types. Two main modules will be developed namely a Skin-Sensory Module and a Muscle-Motor Module. Skin-Sensory Module will be a world first; a commercially available innervated human skin tissue model. It will allow studies and testing of Peripheral Nervous System (PNS) responses to external stimuli in a physiologically-relevant context. This module itself can be used to investigate activities of both dermal and nerve cells at the same time. When a stimulus is introduced on the skin layer, responses of skin cells and activities of sensory neurons (e.g. pain & itch) can be recorded simultaneously. Muscle-Motor Module is an innovative motor neuron-skeletal muscle tissue model. It allows non-invasive recordings of neuromuscular transmission in real time. It will support studies of muscular atrophies & motor neuron diseases with genetically engineered or patient derived cells and long-term monitoring and analysis of drug effects (toxicity and efficacy) with live 3D imaging and electro-physiological recordings. Partners StratiCELL and Axol Bioscience will respectively champion the exploitation of the Skin-Sensory and Muscle-Motor modules, working with early adopter customers in cosmetic and dermatologic testing drug development. The technology is derived from FET Open project MESO-BRAIN featuring 2PP fabrication of 3D scaffolds with built-in electrodes and fast maturation protocols for cultivating sensory and motor neurons from IPSc derived neural progenitors. PLATFORMA bulds upon MESO0BRAIN in the direction of market demand for physiologically-relevant test platforms.