# Individual cell bioprinting to generate multi-tissue type condensations for osteochondral tissue regeneration

> **NIH AR R01** · UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO · 2026 · $422,057

## Abstract

Abstract
Osteochondral defects of the knee are common worldwide, yet there are few viable options for patients with
damaged osteochondral tissue as current treatments do not consistently regenerate functional tissue. The
standard of care for osteochondral defect repair is arthroscopic microfracture surgery, but this procedure often
results in formation of mechanically inferior fibrocartilage formation. To overcome limitations of this and other
surgical procedures, tissue engineering strategies, such as cell-laden biomaterial scaffolds, are promising
alternative approaches to treat these defects. However, scaffold-based strategies face several challenges, such
as interference with critical cell-cell interactions, potential immune and/or inflammatory reaction to the scaffold
and its degradation byproducts, and unsynchronized scaffold degradation rate with that of new tissue formation.
New cellular condensation strategies without a scaffold address these issues, however, it is still difficult to
precisely control the architecture of the engineered tissues to mimic the sophisticated three-dimensional (3D)
structure and organization of natural osteochondral tissues and their structure-derived functions. Recently, 3D
bioprinting has been applied in tissue engineering with the potential to create complicated, high-resolution 3D
structures. In addition, we have engineered the first technology capable of 3D printing a cell-only bioink and
maintaining the printed structure, which is necessary to form cell condensations. The hypothesis of this proposal
is that cellular condensation-based prevascularized osteochondral tissue constructs of precisely defined
geometries can be directly assembled with human stem cells and endothelial cells via 3D bioprinting into a
photocurable liquid-like solid, shear-thinning and rapid self-healing microgel slurry with spatially controlled
presentation of tissue specific growth factors. Microgel photocrosslinking after printing will provide tempo

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 11301808
- **Project number:** 5R01AR081448-04
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO
- **Principal Investigator:** Eben  Alsberg; Oju  Jeon
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** AR
- **Fiscal year:** 2026
- **Award amount:** $422,057
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2023-04-05T00:00:00 → 2028-02-29T00:00:00

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11301808

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 11301808, Individual cell bioprinting to generate multi-tissue type condensations for osteochondral tissue regeneration (5R01AR081448-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-07-06 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/11301808. Licensed CC0.

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