Q & A - Suwan Jayasinghe
Please tell us about your background in biophysics and main area of interest at present.
Having completed a bachelors and a masters degree in mechanical engineering at Brunel university I started a PhD in materials sciences at Queen Mary University of London. On completing my PhD I became a post-doc for a short period, subsequently securing a Roberts fellowship which guaranteed a lectureship on completion. On completing the first year of my fellowship I joined UCL and have been at UCL since, where in 2016 I was promoted to the rank of a full professor. My research interests have spanned advanced materials and their processing. In 2005/6 we decided to use novel materials processing tools namely, electrospraying and electrospinning for the direct handling of living cells/ whole organisms with and without other biomolecules in the hope to develop functional three-dimensional tissue which could be used for repairing, replacing and rejuvenating damaged and/or aging tissues and/ or organs.
Much to our surprise we discovered that these electric field driven technologies have no deleterious effects at all from a molecular level upwards.
This paved the way for the emergence of the wellestablished bioplatforms known as bio-electrosprays and cell electrospinning. These findings have seen us interrogate the technologies alongside the post processed cells and whole organisms in comparison to controls using well-established biomedical and clinical read outs.
Considering the rise of 3D printing techniques, how prominent have they become in the medical field, and are there limitations?
3D printing is a unique technology capable of rapid prototyping advanced designs. The technology is truly revolutionary in that it is a low cost technology capable of manufacturing intricate prototypes for many industries. That being said the technology in the context of directly handling biomolecules and living cells, process which is referred to as bioprinting, has not been so successful. The limitations stem from the technology itself as the process uses fine needles which are known to shear molecules and cells within the needles thus causing significant damage to both the processed biomolecules and cells. Many attempts have seen this technology retrofitted in many aspects but this issue persists and has negative effects on the processed biomaterials.
Although 3D printing or bioprinting has these limitations whist directly handling biomolecules and cells, the technology has been explored and has found its utility in the medical field for reconstructing medical components such as jaw bones to the printing of human architectures such as the skull and brain thus allowing these prototype models to assist surgeons with visualising entry point etc for removing brain cancers etc.
How may your team’s studied scaffolding methods contribute to regenerative medicine?
Knowledge in the field of tissue engineering proposes the concept of placing cells in three-dimensional proximity within a scaffold architecture allowing the cells to communicate etc and regenerate a fully functional three-dimensional tissue. This concept however is not fully realized by just placing cells on a 3D scaffold. Many studies have tried to show that there is promise, but recent clinical studies have shown that the mere introduction of cells into a 3D scaffold does not promote the formation of a functional tissue, in fact those studies have resulted in
the loss of human life. In our pursuit for competing with this research problem we explored the ability to electrospin living cells and biomolecules with a biopolymer thus generating a scaffold containing living cells in true three-dimensional throughout the entire thickness of the scaffold. Our initial studies demonstrated that those cells remain viable and indistinguishable with controls, and have not been altered by the electric field from a genetic, genomic to a physiological level. Thus opening this technology as a front running platform for regenerative medicine.
The uniqueness of both bio-electrosprays and cell electrospinning allow the use of large bore needles thus enabling the processing of large volumes of cells in many permutations and combination with other biomolecules, hence enabling the reconstitution of a native tissue from a patient’s own cells. Combining our findings with the huge developmentals unearthed in the cell and molecular biology fields allow one to use patients own cells post manipulation (gene transfection/CRISPR) for reconstructing therapeutics/experimental cells/gene and tissue for transplantations without the need for any immunosuppression. Our collaborations have seen the reconstruction of human native tissues, biological models to truly seeing the light at the end of the tunnel for personalized medicine. The applications of these platforms extend to the freezing of cells and culturing them in threedimensions amongst others.
Next, what steps lie ahead for further investigating the validity of these methods?
We are currently running clinical trials on advanced wound healing bandages for combatting venous diabetic ulcers and bed sores. Success will see these technologies rolled out as mainstream clinical therapies.