Printing Hope in the Lab

Most people are familiar with 3D printers making plastic prototypes or hobbyist creations. But in a research lab in Farmington, a specialized 3D bioprinter is being used for something more consequential: repairing and regenerating living tissue. Regenerative medicine is a cutting-edge field, and some of the most advanced research is happening right here at Connecticut Children’s and the UConn School of Medicine.

Connecticut Children’s Surgeon-in-Chief and UConn School of Medicine Vice Chair of Surgery Christine Finck, MD, leads a team of researchers who are working with 3D bioprinters—generously funded by donor Glen Greenberg. These printers, however, don’t simply extrude layers of plastic strands to build an object. Rather, they are capable of constructing tissue-like structures using bioinks and stem cells. While current research studies remain in preclinical stages with animal models, the future implications for human patients could transform medicine.

Growing Personalized Airways and Lungs

Both pediatric and adult patients suffer from a wide variety of lung diseases, and worldwide there is a devastating shortage of available lungs for patients who need transplants. The need for new therapeutic options is urgent, a need that Dr. Finck’s lab is addressing by leveraging the potential of regenerative medicine. Using a CT scan of a patient’s lungs and the 3D bioprinter, her research team can create anatomically precise airways tailored to individual patients. This ability to generate human lung tissue in the lab allows researchers to study pediatric lung diseases and test therapies, potentially accelerating the development of new treatments.

Building Living Tissue, Layer by Layer

Every year, 1 in 4,000 babies is born with an incomplete esophagus that doesn’t connect the mouth and stomach (a condition called esophageal atresia, or EA). Surgeons fix this by stretching the tissue and suturing the ends in place. This is major surgery in an infant. Dr. Finck and her research team are using the 3D bioprinter to explore the possibilities of regenerative medicine to treat EA in a better way. They have developed bioprinted scaffolds in the shape and structure of an esophagus that can be seeded with a patient’s own stem cells. Those stem cells grow on the scaffold, creating the missing esophageal tissue. The biodegradable scaffold then dissolves, leaving in its place a natural esophagus composed entirely of the patient’s own cells.

Our physician-scientists like Dr. Finck rely on philanthropy to acquire vital tools—such as the 3D bioprinters—that power their research and move new discoveries forward.

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Printing Hope in the Lab

Growing Personalized Airways and Lungs

Building Living Tissue, Layer by Layer

Invest in a Better Future

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