# Administrative Supplement to CWRU Center for Multimodal Evaluation of Engineered Cartilage

> **NIH NIH P41** · CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $312,301

## Abstract

Despite significant advances over several decades, very few Tissue Engineered Medical Products (TEMPs) have
been clinically or commercially successful, as a significant technology gap, known as the “Valley of Death”, has
prevented their scalable, consistent and cost-effective manufacture. This proposal is for bridge funding pending
the competing renewal of the current “Case Center for Multimodal Evaluation of Engineered Cartilage”. There is
a growing need for TEMPs in multiple applications. We therefore believe that now is the time for a bold shift from
our original focus on cartilage-centric evaluation technologies to developing, demonstrating, and deploying novel
technologies to enable Quality-by-Design manufacturing of a variety of structural tissues, and to, thus, bridge
the aforementioned Valley of Death. The goal of the Center is the adoption of our technologies by the TEMP
community at large. Consequently, the Center, will be renamed “Center for Modular Manufacturing of Structural
Tissues” (CM2OST), and will apply knowledge and technology developed during the first 5 years to manufactur-
ing-oriented challenges. The Center will be a consortium between CWRU and the Advanced Regenerative Man-
ufacturing Institute (ARMI), and will focus on technologies that enable scalable, modular, automated, closed
(SMAC) manufacturing. The Specific Aims of this Administrative Supplement proposal are to complete a subset
of the tasks proposed in the Technology Research and Development (TR&D) components of the A0 submission,
specifically, Aim 1 will pursue the TR&D-1 goals to generation genetically encoded cell sensors for dynamic
sensing of cellular phenotype and function, and to develop molecular sensors for dynamic non-invasive monitor-
ing of cell phenotype and function using CRISPR-Cas13 based reporters. Aim 2 will pursue the TR&D-2 of adapt-
ing oxygen and lactate optodes into scaffolds to measure local metabolite levels and cellular oxygen uptake
rates. Aim 3 will pursue TR&D-3 task towards developing bioreactors with integrated sensors for feedback con-
trol, and will physically integrate them with the Tissue Foundry, an ARMI prototype automated TEMP assembly
line. Aim 4 will be to demonstrate integration of O2 and OUR sensors with the automation and data management
system of the Tissue Foundry. The requested funding will allow us to keep the Center operational as a national
resource for collaborations and as a platform for developing, testing, validating, and disseminating new technol-
ogy, methods, and protocols for TEMP manufacturing.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10468459
- **Project number:** 3P41EB021911-05S1
- **Recipient organization:** CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Arnold Irwin Caplan
- **Activity code:** P41 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $312,301
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2021-09-15 → 2022-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10468459

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10468459, Administrative Supplement to CWRU Center for Multimodal Evaluation of Engineered Cartilage (3P41EB021911-05S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10468459. Licensed CC0.

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