INEGI participates in a project to innovate in the health sector with 3D bio-printing solutions

INEGI is one of the partners of the InterLynk project, a European initiative that, over the next four years, aims to develop regenerative solutions for the successful repair and regeneration of complex multi-tissue systems, such as bone, cartilage, ligament and tendon.

As explained by Marco Parente, responsible for the project at INEGI, "the recent advances in the field of materials science and 3D printing technologies have paved the way for innovative approaches in the field of medicine, especially in the repair and reconstruction of tissues and organs".

The project partners thus aim to "expand the frontiers of personalized and regenerative medicine, culminating in the reduction of health costs related to the time of rehabilitation or infections associated with medical devices". To this end, they aim to develop bio-inks, derived from human plasma and that can be specific to each patient, and 3D bioprinting processes capable of combining different biomaterials in a single scaffold, with spatial control of their organization and distribution.

These biomaterials, and the control of their application thanks to additive manufacturing, contribute to create scaffolds (implants that support the regeneration of bone or muscle tissue) that best mimic the conditions necessary for regeneration.

INEGI will be in charge of the numerical simulation of the additive manufacturing processes to predict the behavior of these biomaterials, as well as the design of the tools that will control the distribution and organization of the biomaterials, in order to create the scaffold structures. It will also have a fundamental role in supporting and quantifying the impact of the project, through Life-Cycle Engineering (LCE) approaches, namely with the application of original tools developed by INEGI such as Multi-Layer Stream Mapping to assess the efficiency of resources, in addition to life cycle assessments and environmental impacts.

Led by the COMPASS Research Group, the InterLynk: Human Platelet Lysates-based Scaffolds for Interfacial Multi-tissue Repair project brings together 8 European partners from Portugal, Germany, the Netherlands and Italy, and is co-financed by the European Union through the Horizon 2020 program.