Case Number: 21MST001
Manager: Robert Prosak
Director, IP & Licensing
S&T Technology Transfer & Economic Development
robert.prosak@mst.edu
PDF Download: Functional Hydrogel Bio-Ink Modified With Borophosphate Glasses Marketing Slick
Publication: Functional Hydrogel Bio-Ink Modified With Borophosphate Glasses Publication

Opportunity

Seeking a licensing and development partner to advance this bio-ink platform toward commercial and clinical bioprinting applications.

Problem Statement

3D bioprinting needs inks that hold their shape during printing and keep stem cells alive afterward. Alginate-gelatin bio-inks are widely used because they support cell growth and print well, but doping them with bioactive glass to encourage tissue regeneration usually comes at a cost. Common bioactive glasses like the borate-based 13-93B3 release ions so quickly that the local pH spikes, and that pH shock is toxic to the very cells the ink is meant to support. Thus, a bioactive glass additive is needed that improves printability and tissue-regeneration potential without harming cell viability.

Solution

Researchers at Missouri University of Science and Technology have developed a new family of borophosphate bioactive glasses for alginate gelatin bio-ink to address a key challenge in bioprinting. By adjusting the phosphate-to-toborate ratio in the glass, they can tune the pH of the surrounding solution from acidic to neutral to basic. Of these, only the pH-neutral version gives the ink everything a bioprinter needs: it shows fast shear thinning and viscosity recovery for clean prints, and it releases calcium ions in a controlled way without the pH shock that harms cells around most other bioactive glasses.

Value Proposition

Hydrogels doped with the pH-neutral glass recovered their printed shape almost immediately after shearing, matching the printability of an alkaline bioactive glass long used to promote tissue regeneration. However, where that alkaline glass let only 65% of adipose stem cells survive seven days after printing, the pH-neutral formulation kept over 90% alive, better than even the undoped hydrogel. The same calcium release also slowed gelatin breakdown in printed scaffolds, helping structures hold together longer. The result is a tunable bio-ink platform useful for tissue repair and for building human organoid models used in drug development and disease research.

Development Stage

Validated in the lab.

Intellectual Property

Patent Application US 20240307587A 1

Inventors

Krishna Chaitanya Reddy Kolan, PhD, Julie A. Semon, PhD and Richard K. Brow, PhD