Annabi Receives AHA Grant to Engineer Highly Vascularized Cardiac Tissues
Nasim Annabi is an Assistant Professor in the Chemical Engineering Department with expertise in biomaterials development and soft tissue engineering.
The overall goal of this proposal is to create a new generation of vascularized myocardial patch that can be used in repairing the injured heart tissue. Transplantation has been a long thought strategy of treatment for cardiac injury. One of its major bottlenecks in engineering the artificial cardiac tissue is the creation of vascularized tissue, which is suitable for immediate perfusion to meet the high metabolic demand of the cardiac cells and to prevent development of a necrotic core.
This innovative proposal is seeking a way to engineer vascularized cardiac tissues by combining unique biomaterials, biological growth factors, and advanced bioprinting technologies to develop 3D functional vascular networks with controlled architectures. This exciting integrative approach is the first such an effort to develop 3D engineered cardiac tissues with functional vasculature. The successful execution of the proposed technology will enable unprecedented fabrication of perfusable and integratable multicomponent thick tissues, and will significantly impact on the biofabrication technologies.
For more information, visit: http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/