Prefabricated Mature Blood Vessels and Tools for Vascularized 3D Cell Culture: Vasc-on-Demand

Programme(s): HORIZON.3.1 - The European Innovation Council (EIC) 

Topic(s): HORIZON-EIC-2023-TRANSITIONCHALLENGES-01 - EIC Transition Challenge: Full scale Micro-Nano-Bio devices for medical and medical research applications

Call for proposal: HORIZON-EIC-2023-TRANSITION-01

Funding Scheme: HORIZON-EIC - HORIZON EIC Grants

Grant agreement ID: 101156395

Objective:

In 2020, the cell culture market was valued at $19 billion USD, with consumables comprising more than 60% of the market. The emerging 3D cell culture provides lucrative business opportunities for consumables and tissue test models, but current technology and market supply lack an easy and reliable tool for the uncomplicated creation and cultivation of vascularized and perfusable artificial 3D tissue. The current 3D cell culture consumable market offers only well plate inserts and organ-ona-chip systems for generating 3D tissues, which are limited regarding tissue mimicry and complexity. Bioprinting, while promising, is still unreliable for reproducible vascularized tissue engineering.The EIC Transition Proposal Vasc-on-Demand aims to fill this gap by providing three easy-to-use laboratory products for the generation and cultivation of perfusable vascularized 3D tissue: 1. BasicVasc: An all-in-one bioreactor consumable for generation and cultivation of perfusable tissue culture 2. EasyVasc: Prefabricated ready-to-use vessel channel networks without cells 3. CompleteVasc: Prefabricated matured cell-containing vascularization EasyVasc and CompleteVasc both build on the BasicVasc technology. Therefore, BasicVasc will be advanced for high-throughput production of precisely manufactured structures to be ready for the market. The other products will be fully developed and characterized to allow improved vascularized tissue production with even more advanced and simpler ready-to-use systems. This grant will be carried out by a highly motivated team with synergistic expertise in technology, product engineering, and business development, working towards the foundation of a start-up for the commercialization of the technology. The proposed Vasc-on-Demand has the potential to simplify the development of sophisticated test models for research and pharmaceutical approaches like drug testing, leading to reduced animal trials and development costs.