3D Stem Cell Engineering

Quinton Smith's 3D approach to stem cell engineering could revolutionize how we test drugs and do organ transplants. Learn about his innovative approach and why Popular Science named him a top 10 scientist on the cusp of changing the world in 2023. Smith is an  assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and the director of The Smith Lab @ UCI.

Transcript:

[sci fi music]

[sound of bioprinter]

NATALIE TSO, HOST: This is the Lab Beat where we catch the pulse of cutting-edge labs at UC Irvine’s engineering school.  I’m Natalie Tso.

Imagine if someone who needs a new liver could just print one with this 3D bioprinter using a sample of their own cells.  That’s the vision behind stem cell engineering.

Popular Science named Quinton Smith a scientist on the cusp of changing the world in 2023 because of his 3D approach to stem cell engineering. Smith is an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at UC Irvine. What inspired him to get into this field?

SMITH: Science fiction. This idea that we can take any human cell in the body, reprogram it all the way to an embryonic state and create any cell type in the human body for regenerative medicine. I kind of envision like a world where maybe we don't need to take drugs, but maybe we can use the cell as the therapy.

TSO: This is how it’d work with a liver problem:

SMITH: Let's say my liver is failing, right. I take a biopsy of my own skin, reprogram those cells into an embryonic state, convert those cells to liver cells, mass produce those liver cells, use our 3D printer to organize those cells in the way our liver is structured. It has a beautiful hexagonal pattern and then retransplant that back into my body.

I think you now it's a little bit science fiction. You can actually see different shows using 3D printing, like Westworld is one of my favorite shows. But I think that’s feasible. I think that’s possible.

TSO: Ph.D. student Christopher Clark tells us more about that cool 3D bioprinter.

CHRISTOPHER CLARK: This is a Cellink BioX bioprinter with three extrusion heads. If we want to mimic the architecture of some parts of the human body, such as the alveoli of the lungs or the shape of a liver cell environment, we can use a bioprinter to print cells in confined geometries and in relations to other cells that we used to.

TSO: Smith’s team is using it to make mini livers and a key part of the body scientists have long struggled with – blood vessels.

SMITH:  We consider that to be the highway of life. Blood vessels are responsible for delivering nutrients, oxygen and removing waste.

TSO: Smith creates mini blood vessels on a chip about the size of a quarter. These organs-on-a-chip are a much better way to test drugs.

SMITH: Billions of dollars are spent towards drug development, and the traditional workhorse has been animal models.

TSO: But 90% of drugs that worked in mice fail in human trials

SMITH: I believe using these stem cells,  these human cells, we can reduce the costs of drug testing and maybe come up with even more efficient drugs that actually have profound effects on humans. We're not mice.

TSO: So when can we 3D print a human liver? His best guess is…

SMITH: Let's say 15 years, maybe 15 years…

TSO: But Smith is doing it on a small scale in his lab.

SMITH: We work with, let's say, a million cells. Our liver has 200 billion cells. So that's quite a scale up process to achieve but we have to start somewhere.

[sci fi music]

TSO: And while we wait for that 3D-printed liver, scientists are now making insulin cells from stem cells to cure diabetes.

SMITH:  The most exciting success has been the recent development of stem cell treatments for people with type 1 diabetes, a horrible autoimmune disease that kills the insulin-producing beta cells in your body. Well there have been techniques using stem cell biology to create functional beta cells and you can actually implant them back into someone’s body and instead of taking insulin injections, those implanted cells can respond to the diet that you have to create the perfect amount of insulin. So there’s been very promising clinical trials that have actually proven that we can take stem cells and cure diseases like type 1 diabetes.

TSO: That’s Quinton Smith, turning science fiction to reality at UC Irvine.

I’m Natalie Tso for The Lab Beat which is brought to you by the UC Irvine Samueli School of Engineering.

(Season 1, Episode 1)