Engineering of 3D mesenchymal tissues for bone regeneration and hematopoiesis modeling

The bone organ has two main functions in the adult. a) It provides mechanical support and protects organs, while b) the bone marrow hosts hematopoiesis, a process ensuring lifelong production and renewal of the blood tissue. Therefore, the general aim of my thesis is to engineer mesenchymal tissues able to support bone healing and bone marrow functions. Their recapitulation in vitro by using primary hMSCs (or mesenchymal cell lines) could: (i) help fulfilling a clinical need in bone regenerative medicine by providing engineered off-the-shelf coated extracellular matrix (ECM) with tunable compositions, and (ii) provide an animal-free model to study bone biology and hematology in health and disease. These aims are addressed through a combination of hMSCs and 3D perfusion bioreactor systems.