CBE Colloquia - Advancing Cardiac Tissue Engineering using iPSC and Bioprinting Technologies

Human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs) hold great promise as a cell source for personalized cardiac tissue engineering. Successful construction of functional cardiac tissue requires hundreds of millions to billions of cardiomyocytes, yet their proliferative capacity declines sharply after terminal differentiation. In the first part of my talk, I will present our recent findings on the contact-mediated inhibitory mechanisms that limit cardiomyocyte proliferation and how these molecular insights can be leveraged to promote in situ expansion of hiPSC-CMs within 3D environments. Building on this foundation, the next challenge lies in assembling these cells into physiologically relevant tissue architectures. Conventional approaches often fall short in recapitulating the structural complexity and reproducibility required for advanced cardiac models. In the second part of my talk, I will introduce our recent advances in applying 3D bioprinting technologies to address these limitations and to create next-generation cardiac models with improved structural and functional fidelity.