>> Research Projects >> Bioreactor Development

1. Development of a novel “breathing” bioreactor for the study of lung biology and lung tissue engineering

Lung disease is currently the third leading cause of death in the United States. The study of various lung diseases has been adversely affected due to the lack of an adequate system for lung cell culture. Previous research suggests that cellular morphology, cellular protein expression, and extracellular matrix production are all dependent upon the dynamic mechanical environment that exists in vivo. Bioreactors have been utilized in many areas to apply mechanical stresses to cell cultures and mimic in situ environments in order to stimulate cellular behavior which more closely coincides with that seen in the body. There are currently many bioreactor models available commercially, however, none of these systems are feasible for use in lung epithelial cell cultures since such a wide range of variables must be accounted for when duplicating the lung environment in vitro. An ideal bioreactor for lung cell culture should allow for the application of dynamic tensile forces, the creation of a cell/air interface, and the transfer of gases across the epithelial cell layer while permitting the control of variables such as tensile stress, oxygen partial pressure, culture media perfusion rate, respiratory rate, and basement membrane elasticity. The goal of this project is to develop a “breathing” bioreactor mimicking the physiological environment of the lung epithelial cells in vivo, which may be used for many lung related biomedical studies, such as for the study of lung cell biology, lung development, functional lung cell differentiation from stem cells, environment-lung cell interaction (such as cigarette smoking, vaporized toxins, etc.), lung cancer biology, new cancer treatment testing, and ultimate to be used for engineering lung tissue in vitro. One of above interesting applications is controlled environment for stem cell differentiation into lung epithelial cells, which hold enormous therapeutic potential for the treatment of many lung diseases, such as injury, cancer, and inherited or environmental lung diseases. It is believe that lung epithelial cell differentiation from stem cells is highly dependent upon the provision of environmental cues. The “breathing” dynamic cell-air interface bioreactor is a ideal tool for controlled differentiation of stem cells into lung cells.
The movie below shows the “breathing” scaffold seeded with lung epithelial cells inside of the bioreactor.
Click to watch the Movie
We currently have three designs in lab for lung related studies.

2. A mini-compression force bioreactor for bone and cartilage tissue engineering

Many types of tissues in the body are subject to compression force, such as bone, cartilage, and vertebrate disc. To better understand the biology of the cells in those tissues, control the differentiation of stem cells into those specialized cells, and engineer those types of tissues, a bioreactor with the capacity to apply dynamic compression forces is necessary. To this end, a mini-compression bioreactor was developed (paper in preparation) for the applications in engineering bone and cartilage, or studying the molecular biology of bone and cartilage cells under different force conditions. The figure below is the setup of a mini-compression force bioreactor developed in Dr. Wen’s lab.

3. Other bioreactors available in Dr. Wen’s lab: Dynamic tension bioreactors, microgravity bioreactors, dynamic shear flow bioreactors, dynamic pressure bioreactors, etc.