Titolo della tesi: Advancing Tissue Vascularisation via a One-Step Microfluidic Strategy for Creating Thick, Multimaterial Bioprinted Constructs
Vascularization remains one of the principal bottlenecks in the engineering of soft tissues, particularly for biomimetic neural constructs. In these systems, extreme viscoelastic compliance and fragile cellular phenotypes required severely constraining conventional fabrication strategies. While
extrusion-based bioprinting enables spatial patterning at the macro-scale, the reliable generation of perfusable channels within ultra-low-modulus matrices remains elusive due to inherent structural instabilities and suboptimal control over interfacial multiphase interactions. Consequently, while recent advances in microfluidic technologies have provided new opportunities to regulate laminar flow fields and crosslinking kinetics, their seamless integration into scalable 3D biofabrication workflows remains largely incomplete.
Furthermore, in vascularized brain-mimicking systems, this challenge is exacerbated by the necessity to reconcile materials and cells with fundamentally divergent rheological and biological constraints, such as low-viscosity neural matrices
versus mechanically supportive endothelial compartments. Achieving such discrete compartmentalization within a single-step process requires the high-fidelity regulation of flow stability, localized thermofluidic conditions, and in-situ crosslinking kinetics at the microscale.
In this work, we report a monolithic microfluidic printhead designed to enable the single-step bioprinting of perfusable, coaxial core/shell architectures. By leveraging this platform, we demonstrate the continuous extrusion of geometrically stable fibres, where a soft neural core is effectively encased within a structurally reinforced endothelial shell. The subsequent translation of this strategy to high-aspect-ratio, thick 3D constructs illustrates the feasibility of maintaining luminal patency and structural integrity under dynamic perfusion via a dedicated bioreactor system. Ultimately, these results establish a robust technological framework that bridges microfluidic precision with macro-scale tissue assembly, providing a versatile foundation for future applications in physiologically relevant disease modelling and regenerative medicine.