Free2Morph – An adaptive multi-scale multi-signal microphysiological system to guide spontaneous cell self-organization and for functional tissue morphogenesis in vitro

The proposed project aims at developing microphysiological systems that will integrate mechanical control parameters inside organ-on-chips culture platforms. Thanks to the incorporation of such critical physical cues, now known to influence tissue morphogenesis by acting on the different regimes in cell self-organization, it will be possible to actively guide tissue formation in vitro, thus offering a biomimetic microenvironment with a fidelity closer to the natural conditions. The technology will afford the possibility to monitor cells and tissues growing in such culture platforms in order to tune all control parameters in real-time, according to the desired model to achieve. Then, it is expected that cultured cells will be able to spontaneously form more natural tissues, with a higher functionality. After constructing proof-of-concept prototypes in different biomedical applications, the versatility of our cell models will be validated by collaborators in biology and medicine, aiming at incorporating common development process or ground systems to the IBPS service platform for a wide use in the region.