UroPrint

Project

Urinary bladder bioprinting for fully autologous transplantation

Acronym

UroPrint

Funding

Horizon 2020

Funding scheme

RIA – Research and Innovation action

Start Date

01/09/2021

End Date

31/08/2025

Consortium

Metatissue
Idryma Iatroviologikon Ereunon Akademias Athinon –
IST-ID – Associação do Instituto Superior Técnico para a Investigação e Desenvolv
ICCS – Institute of Communications and Computer Systems
Optics11 BV
Asphalion

Eligible Total Cost

3.058.434,99 €

Resume

Certain conditions, including inflammation and cancer, require augmentation of the urinary bladder. However, the conventional approach of using bowel tissue suffers from risks and post-surgery complications.

UroPrint proposes the use of Laser-Induced Forward Transfer (LIFT) to generate bladder tissue for autologous transplantation that would meet the biological, mechanical and functional properties of the human bladder. To this end, primary urothelial and smooth muscle cells will be obtained from healthy donors and expanded in fully Good Medical Practice compliant methodologies. These will be combined with novel natural autologous scaffold material obtained from platelet lysates. Then, a novel approach in the generation of bladder transplant will be utilized, combining intestine denudation and in vivo printing during surgery using a novel prototype LIFT printer that achieved high spatial resolution (<10 μm), high cell viability (>95%) single-urothelial cells.