Taking Tissue Engineering to the Next Level

There is a need for reliable methods to regenerate damaged tissue and organs, and though tissue engineering has gained in importance in regenerative medicine there are still some challenges to be met to establish this method as adopted clinical therapy. So far very time- and labor-intensive bench-top techniques are used to produce tissue grafts, always holding the risk of contamination and variability, while providing limited scale-up opportunities. A newly developed bioreactor system with integrated sensors might be the answer to produce viable engineered tissue grafts for future clinical use. The DOTR sensor technology will contribute to this system enabling non-invasive monitoring inside the bioreactor with the cell-seeded grafts. This will allow better control of cultivation conditions, minimize the risk of contamination, and increase the quality of engineered tissue. The controlled environment which will result in less variablility of the products, and new monitoring and data management systems will enhance traceability and therefore comply with regulatory standards. Automation in the tissue engineering process will lead to safer and standardized production which will give the opportunity for scale-up and reduce costs at the same time.
The bioreactor system will primarily be applied to produce three-dimensional cartilage grafts, which might improve therapy of degenerative joint diseases or injuries. The established method of autologous chondrocyte implantation shows promising results in short-term but this technique generates tissue with inferior mechanical properties. The BIO-COMET project aims to produce standardized function cartilage grafts with similar properties as healthy cartilage tissue that might shorten rehabilitation time and enable durable repair in the damaged region.

The tools, technologies and devices developed within the BIO-COMET research project will be tested in pre-clinical trials with the final aim of translating this therapy method to the clinic, so in future patients might profit from the successful commercialization of engineered tissue products. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union?s Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007-2013) under grant agreement number 278807.

For more information about the BIO-COMET project visit www.biocomet.eu .