Arxius: News

The “Advances in 3D Bioprinting” conference, focused on the latest advancements in bioprinting methods and applications, counted with the presence of several B-BRIGHTER researchers from the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), who presented the last developments of the project.

From 10-12 September, lead international experts in 3D Bioprinting came together at Technion, Israel, to share their experience in various exciting topics in this field, including in situ bioprinting, bioprinting for organ-on-a-chip devices, organoid bioprinting, and bioprinting of vascularized composite tissues. B-BRIGHTER researchers from IBEC had the opportunity to present the latest advances of the project and in a very rich and fruitful scientific environment.

Elena Martínez was invited to give the talk “Development of biomimetic models of intestine tissue: guiding cellular self-organization through biofabrication technology”, where she emphasized the great possibilities of the 3D bioprinting technology to mimic this organ in the laboratory.

Additionally, to the invited talk, two posters + oral presentations showcased B-BRIGHTER at the conference. Aina Abad-Lázaro presented the work “A 3D model of the intestinal mucosa through light-based bioprinting combining organoids and stromal cells”, that aims to engineer an in vitro intestinal model more similar to the physiological condition, by bioprinting a villus-like 3D hydrogel with embedded stromal cells.

On the other hand, Nuria Torras was in charge of presenting the project overview, also with a poster and an oral presentation, entitled “3D Bioprinting by Light-Sheet Lithography: towards complex tissue constructs”. She highlighted the new bioprinting technology based on digital light-sheet illumination and using an original top-down lithography approach. To conclude this very successful participation, Nuria’s poster has received the conference best poster award. Congratulations!

Youth and Science program from La Pedrera Foundation in Barcelona puts together 15–16-year-old students with scientists from different fields and allow them to perform a small research project. Nuria Torras took part in this engagement activity and hosted Lola Dagà for 3 weeks at the Biomimetic systems for cell engineering group from the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC).

The Catalunya La Pedrera Foundation is a private and independent foundation, led by a board of trustees comprising experts in different fields, which focus their efforts on carrying out projects that have a positive impact on people’s quality of life. Among those projects we can find the Youth and Science program, oriented to 4th year of compulsory secondary school (ESO) students. The goal of this program is to encourage student’s scientific-technological vocations offering them the opportunity to experience research firsthand and the chance of fully cultivating their skills.

For three weeks this Summer, Nuria Torras, B-BRIGHTER researcher at the Biomimetic systems for cell engineering group lead by Elena Martinez at IBEC in Barcelona, hosted a student in the frame of this program. From the 26^th of June to the 14^th of July, Lola Dagà could experience what it is like to be a researcher. This 15 years old student had a small research project entitled: 3D bioprinting of biological models: manufacturing and case study.

Among others, Lola learnt how to use light-based 3D bioprinting to manufacture several tissue models, by combining hydrogels and different cell lines, and how to prepare inks for bioprinting. Part of the training consisted in studying the effects of the geometry and various printing parameters in the model to optimize the results. Additionally, she could culture the manufactured samples and monitor cell behaviours through immunofluorescence and microscopy techniques (basic and confocal optical microscopy).

In addition to the practical work, Lola also learnt what is a scientific paper and how to find them in the literature, and how to present and discuss her work and results with team members, for example during the weekly meetings. This was a great experience for Lola who opened her mind to scientific research and developed a critical thinking. These kinds of engagement activities are very valuable to stimulate scientific vocations.

The 16th Science Party (“Festa de la Ciència” in Catalan) took place last 10 – 11 of June in Barcelona. Researchers from the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia proposed a hands-on activity to bring B-BRIGHTER project closer to the society.

One more year, the streets of Barcelona, Spain, filled with science and people interested in it. The 16^th edition of the Science Party was a great success and for two days, participants had the opportunity to engage in a diverse array of actions proposed. Shows, workshops, experiments, guided tours, microtalks, games, and debates composed a total of 177 activities that attracted approximately 16,000 visitors.

Researchers Nuria Torras, Marcel Sorribas and Angela Cirulli from the Biomimetic systems for cell engineering group at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) in Barcelona were in charge of this outreach activity in the frame of B-BRIGHTER project, entitled “3D BIOimpression: how can bioengineering help solving health problems”.

Visitors could also observe under a microscope and compare samples of real human tissues with others fabricated in the laboratory by bioimpression, such as skin and intestine. They could also wear gloves and manipulate some of the materials used in the laboratory such as Petri dishes with cell cultures, tubes with nutrient solutions for cells and pipettes.

These types of outreach activities are an excellent method for bridging the gap between science and the general public, as well as for enhancing awareness of the significance of research in our daily lives and within society as a whole.

B-BRIGHTER was present at the prestigious Gordon Research Conference 2023 on “Epithelial Differentiation and Keratinization”, held last 04-09 of June in Castelldefels, Spain. The team of Ruby Shalom-Feuerstein from Technion – Israel Institute of Technology was invited to present their last advances in the research of cornea stem cells.

The Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Epithelial Differentiation and Keratinization stands as a foremost global scientific event dedicated to propelling the boundaries of knowledge, showcasing pioneering and previously unreleased research. This year, the meeting is entitled “Novel mechanisms of regulation in epithelial biology and their implication in physiology, aging and disease”, and strives to unite distinguished speakers who are pioneers in the field of stem cell biology, cancer, regenerative medicine, immunity, aging, epigenetics, skin diseases, novel single cell molecular technologies, global genomics, and novel therapies.

Shalini began her talk by introducing B-BRIGHTER project and technology, and afterwards she focused on the use of cornea as a robust stem cell model. She emphasized its assets as it allows tracing stem cells in live with simple microscopy, observing spatial segregation of stem cells and differentiated cells, and a robust regeneration, among other advantages. To conclude her presentation, she mentioned that differentiation is a reversible process, central cornea shows high plasticity and dedifferentiated cells display bona fide stem cell features.

The Gordon Research Conference puts a strong emphasis on encouraging discussions following each presentation and cultivating casual exchanges among scientists at every stage of their careers. The conference agenda boasts a rich array of speakers and discussion leaders hailing from institutions and entities across the globe, converging to explore the most recent advancements within the domain. For sure it has been a very fruitful event for B-BRIGHTER project. 

What would happen if we could do human tissue bioprinting under 0g? This is the key question of ASTRoLAB: Advanced Space-based Tissue Regeneration with Light-sheet Assisted Bioprinting. This side-project based on B-BRIGHTER technology has been recently submitted to the European Space Agency (ESA).

B-BRIGHTER consortium members recently presented a project in the frame of the ESA Payload Master call, with the aim to send the project’s light-sheet bioprinter to space and perform some experiments to check-out if there outcomes improve while working under 0g.

The main points of the proposal are:

– Bioprinting under 0g substantially improves the quality of the engineered tissues, by allowing a level of homogeneity of the cell-gel mixture that is not achievable in a g-field 20 µm resolution.

– We want to show that manufacturing engineered tissues in 0g offers enormous advantages compared to manufacture on Earth.

– We aim to demonstrate that the top-down bio-printing process offered by the LS-Bioprinter is much more suitable to 0g applications than the conventional extrusion methods.


The ESA Payload Masters program serves the dual role of fostering and discovering groundbreaking in-orbit experiments and cutting-edge technologies for payloads. Simultaneously, it plays a pivotal role in democratizing space exploration, making it accessible to both space and non-space industries. The main objective of the program is to enhance the competitiveness of companies by eradicating the well-known “valley of death” phenomenon and giving access to in-Orbit Demonstration and Validation (IOD/IOV).

The project winners of the call will be offered the opportunity to fly their payloads/microgravity experiments on board of Nyx for the “Mission Possible” mission. Nyx is a modular and reusable orbital vehicle that can be refuelled in orbit and serves the low Earth orbit (LEO) and lunar destinations. It will start by carrying cargo, with the growth potential to fly humans afterwards. Nyx will enable to perform microgravity experiments, in-orbit technology demonstrations, entertainment, and educational missions, but also cargo delivery to larger space infrastructures or lunar surface.

Let’s keep fingers crossed and hope ASTRoLAB will be selected!

The technology transfer team from the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia presented the B-BRIGHTER innovative 3D bioprinter at the first Connection Day in Catalonia, a networking  event designed to be a benchmark space for B2B connections in the health sector.

Last 27^th of April, the Institute of Ocular Microsurgery (IMO) in Barcelona hosted the first Connection Day, coordinated by the CataloniaBio & HealthTech, an organization that represents companies in the biomedicine and health sector in Catalonia.

The technology transfer team from the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia was present in the event to promote their technology and innovation in the field of biomedicine and health. In this context, as partners of B-BRIGHTER, they also presented the innovative 3D bioprinting technology being developed in the project and took profit of this opportunity to do networking and pave the way for future collaborations.

Last 19-21 of April B-BRIGHTER members meet together at Tübingen for the 6M internal and progress meetings and a visit to the new facilities of CELLENDES.

The hotel Krone in Tübingen hosted for two days B-BRIGHTER project. On the 20^th and the morning of the 21^st of April, researchers met for an internal monitoring of the work done during the first six months of the project, and to discuss the following steps until the end of the year. All workpackages were presented by their coordinators and researchers could evaluate the advances until know and propose strategies and ideas to surpass obstacles.

During the afternoon of the last day, took place the progress meeting, among project members and the EIC Project Advisor and Program Manager. This was a very fruitful discussion where the project coordinator, Gustaf Mårtensson, presented the goals, the product, the development program, and the current status of the project. He highlighted the achievements during this initial phase and stressed out what is planned for the next six months.

B-BRIGHTER project had a notable participation at the last 3D Cell Culture Conference: Models, Applications & Translation, with two talks and two posters explaining the rationale behind the project and the latest advances. The emphasis of this year’s meeting was on advanced and predictive 3D cell culture models.

Last 17-19 April, Cellendes, Goethe University Frankfurt (GUF) and the Institute of Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), brought to light B-BRIGHTER project to the assistants of the 7th 3D Cell Culture Conference, held at Freiburg, Germany. The 3D Cell Culture Conference (3DCC) is an initiative of DECHEMA, a non-profit professional society which promotes scientific and technical exchange among experts from different disciplines, organizations and generations, concretely, it is organized by the working groups “Cell Culture Technology” and “Medical Biotechnology”.

The main topics of the 7th edition of the 3DCC series were the latest tendencies in development, biology and applications of organoids, the biology in microphysiological systems, new developments in the field of personalised medicine, the path from 3D cell cultures to cell-based therapies, as well as enabling technologies for standardisation and scalability.

In addition to the scientific presentations, the meeting spotlighted practical applications, products, and solutions, triggering engaging conversations among researchers, solution providers, and users.

UNISTEM Day annual event is designed for high school students, aiming to kindle their interest and potentially unveil a passion for science and scientific exploration through the lens of stem cell research topics and challenges. In this context, Nuria Torras from B-BRIGHTER project talked about 3D Bioprinting and tissue regeneration.

UNISTEM Day event is set to take place simultaneously across multiple universities in Europe, spanning countries such as Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Sweden. In Spain, universities from various regions come together, collaborating with research centres to arrange tailored activities, including presentations, discussions, film screenings, and recreational activities.

The idea behind UNISTEM Day is to give participants the opportunity to uncover the world of research, not only delving into scientific content and methodologies, but also realizing that research can be enjoyable and conducive to personal and social connections.

Nuria Torras, B-BRIGHTER researcher at the Biomimetic systems for cell engineering group from Elena Martinez at IBEC in Barcelona, participated this year in the fifteenth UNISTEM, held the 10th of March, under the motto “The long and fascinating journey of stem cell research”, a day devoted to learning, discovering and discussing about stem cell research, including cultural expectations and ethical issues.

Nuria’s talk, which took place at the University of Barcelona (UB) to about 140 high school students, was centred on 3D bioimpression and tissue regeneration, with a focus on the principles and objectives of B-BRIGHTER Project.

A collateral aim of the event is to engage students across Europe, uniting them from diverse nations through social networks and interconnections among various universities.

Gustaf Mårtensson from MYCRONIC, coordinator of B-BRIGHTER project, was invited to give a talk at the last Optopub, organised by PhotonicSweden and the Swedish Optical Society.

Optopubs are seminars designed to stimulate the discussion about new technologies, socialize and have an exchange between players with different backgrounds in fields related with photonics and optics, promoting new collaborations and opportunities among companies, universities, and institutes in the field of optics and photonics in Sweden and abroad. These seminars are organised by PhotonicSweden and the Swedish Optical Society and take place in three Swedish cities: Stockholm, Lund and Gothenburg.

Gustaf Mårtensson, coordinator of B-BRIGHTER, was invited to talk about the project on the first Optopubs seminars of the year, held last 16^th of February at the company Cobolt AB, a part of HÜBNER Photonics and under the title: “High Performance Lasers Enabling Innovative Life Science Applications”. In this context, Gustaf explained the details of the European Project B-BRIGHTER focusing on the contribution of MYCRONIC in the system design for pattern generators as well as for pattern generator optics, servo, data channel and system control software in the development of the innovative 3D bioprinter based on light-sheet technology.

The other two talks were “Real-time single-molecule 3D tracking in E. coli”, by Elias Amselem from Uppsala University, and “Transient state (TRAST) spectroscopy and imaging of cellular and molecular states and conditions – exploiting the sensing side of fluorophore blinking kinetics” by Jerker Widengren from KTH Royal Institute of Technology. To close the event, Håkan Karlsson, CEO of Cobolt AB and Head of HÜBNER Photonics, presented the company.

Participating in this kind of events helps increasing the awareness among the general public and politicians of the strategic importance of optics and photonics in many fields, as in the case of B-BRIGHTER, in biomedicine. It is also a great opportunity to spread the word about B-BRIGHTER and sow seeds for collaborations with companies and research groups working in related areas.