Tissue engineering and biofabrication

Overview

The Ozdoganlar Lab develops manufacturing-enabled technologies to engineer functional biological tissues and tissue-on-chip platforms. Our work focuses on creating perfusable, architecturally realistic, and scalable tissue systems for disease modeling, drug discovery, and regenerative medicine. Driven by precision manufacturing, materials processing, and system integration, we enable controlled three-dimensional architectures, with particular emphasis on vascular and biomimetic features essential to tissue viability and function. These platforms address key limitations of existing models and lay the groundwork for future implantable tissues and organs.

This work is a collaboration with the LeDuc Lab @ CMU.

Our approach

Unlike biology-first tissue engineering approaches, our work is driven by precision manufacturing, materials processing, and system integration. We design and validate processes that enable controlled three-dimensional architecture, with particular emphasis on vascular networks, biomimetic surface topographies, and multi-scale structural features that are essential to tissue viability and function.

Our lab’s unique contribution lies in translating process engineering and manufacturing rigor into reproducible tissue-engineering platforms. Over nearly two decades, our work has evolved from early microfabrication-based platforms to advanced freeform and sacrificial manufacturing approaches that enable complex internal architectures not achievable with conventional techniques.

Why it matters

Despite decades of progress, engineering tissues that replicate native function remains a central challenge. Key barriers include:

Lack of robust three-dimensional vascularization
Insufficient control of micro- and meso-scale architecture
Limited integration of perfusion, oxygen transport, and nutrient delivery
Challenges in scalability and reproducibility

At the same time, tissue- and organ-on-chip systems have reached a critical inflection point. Many diseases and therapeutic responses cannot be faithfully studied using 2D cell cultures or small-animal models alone. There is a growing need for engineered tissues that capture human-relevant physiology, enable controlled experimentation, and interface with vascular and immune systems.

Our work directly targets these bottlenecks by enabling fully perfusable, architecturally defined, and functionally relevant tissue constructs.

Key research thrusts

Vascularized tissue scaffolds with biomimetic channel architectures
Tissue- and organ-on-chip platforms for disease modeling and drug screening
Design, fabrication, modeling, and experimental analysis of microfluidic systems that enable controlled perfusion and transport in tissue/organ-on-chip platforms
Freeform and sacrificial manufacturing techniques (e.g., ice-based and templated approaches) for internal conduits
Biomimetic surface topographies to regulate cell behavior and tissue maturation
Integration of extracellular matrix, biomaterials, and living cells into reproducible tissue systems
Benchtop, in vitro, and pre-clinical (in vivo) validation of engineered tissues (as appropriate to each platform)

Sample projects

Freeform Ice Printing for Biomimetic Vascular Networks: This project develops freeform ice-based sacrificial printing techniques to fabricate complex, perfusable vascular networks within soft biomaterials. The approach enables precise control of three-dimensional channel geometry and connectivity, overcoming key limitations of conventional biofabrication methods. [1], [2], [3]
Skin-on-Chip Platforms with Integrated Vasculature and Surface Topography: This work focuses on engineering skin-on-chip platforms that integrate perfusable vasculature with biomimetic surface topography to more faithfully replicate native skin physiology. These systems enable improved studies of skin biology, disease mechanisms, and therapeutic response under physiologically relevant conditions.
Micromachining-Enabled Sacrificial Templating for Embedded Circular Vasculature in ECM: Demonstrated hybrid manufacturing (micromilling, molding, and sacrificial templating) to create physiologically relevant circular channels embedded within collagen matrices for controlled gradients and 3D cell-response studies.

Methods and capabilities

Freeform sacrificial fabrication (3D-ICE–based printing)
Scalable and precise microfabrication (mechanical micromachining, micromolding, laser micromachining, precision 3D printing)
Microfluidic system design and modeling, and experimental characterization (e.g., flow performance and operating envelopes)
Hydrogel and ECM processing
Perfusion and transport characterization
Structural and functional validation (benchtop, in vitro, in vivo)
In-house wet lab for cell culture/incubation and cell-based analyses supporting in vitro validation

Applications

Disease modeling and mechanistic biology
Drug discovery and toxicity testing
Personalized tissue platforms using patient-derived cells
Tissue and organ engineering for regenerative medicine and transplantation