3D Tissue Engineering Techniques and Their Applications

A special issue of Micromachines (ISSN 2072-666X). This special issue belongs to the section "B2: Biofabrication and Tissue Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 January 2026 | Viewed by 344

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506, USA
Interests: tissue engineering; live cell biosensing; organ-on-a-chip; cancer metastasis; drug delivery

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to launch a Micromachines Special Issue, titled “3D Tissue Engineering Techniques and Their Applications”. This Special Issue aims to highlight emerging scientific and engineering innovations of 3D tissue engineering and their transformative potential in bioscience and biomedical fields.

Recent advances in functional biomaterials, stem cells, and organoid cultures have enabled the development of physiologically relevant tissue-engineered human models in health and diseases. Integrated with novel technologies, such as molecular biosensors and nanomedicines, these tissue-engineered devices offer platforms for real-time molecular monitoring and modeling of live human physiological systems with unprecedented accuracy, resolution, and throughput. These technologies are playing a crucial role in facilitating disease diagnostics, molecular mechanisms, drug delivery, and screening, paving the way for the discovery of innovative therapeutic targets and treatment strategies for human diseases.

We invite interdisciplinary and original research and review articles on diverse topics, including, but not limited to, the following: novel designs of organ-on-chip; organoid culture systems; stem cell culture; biomaterials for 3D scaffolds and drug delivery systems; integrated biosensors; and real-time diagnostic tools and their applications in early disease diagnostics, disease pathway discovery, and drug screening. We specifically encourage contributions regarding human disease modeling and personalized medicines.

By contributing to this Special Issue, you will help create a comprehensive resource for scientists, engineers, and clinicians to combat human diseases with cutting-edge 3D tissue engineering technologies.

We look forward to your contributions.

Dr. Ninghao Zhu
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • tissue engineering
  • organ-on-chip
  • biosensor
  • biofabrication
  • disease modeling
  • drug delivery
  • drug screening
  • diagnostics
  • biomaterials
  • stem cell culture
  • organoid culture
  • bioMEMS

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

20 pages, 4013 KB  
Review
Bioengineering 3D Pancreatic Cancer Models with Fibrotic Stroma for In Vitro Cancer Modeling
by Xingrun Lan, Keke Chen and Xiaoyun Wei
Micromachines 2025, 16(10), 1140; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi16101140 - 2 Oct 2025
Abstract
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remains highly lethal due to late diagnosis, high malignancy, and profound resistance to therapy. Traditional two-dimensional (2D) cell cultures fail to recapitulate the complex tumor microenvironment (TME), especially the fibrotic stroma, which is crucial for the progression of PDAC [...] Read more.
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remains highly lethal due to late diagnosis, high malignancy, and profound resistance to therapy. Traditional two-dimensional (2D) cell cultures fail to recapitulate the complex tumor microenvironment (TME), especially the fibrotic stroma, which is crucial for the progression of PDAC and drug response. In vitro three-dimensional (3D) models, which provide more physiologically relevant features such as tight cell–cell and cell-extracellular matrix (ECM) interactions, as well as 3D architecture, have been regarded as highly promising models in PDAC research. This review summarizes some representative in vitro PDAC models, including 3D spheroids, tumor-on-a-chip, bioprinted constructs, and patient-derived organoids (PDOs), particularly focused on the advances in bioengineering strategies for the integration of the key stomal components for microenvironment recapitulation and their applications. Additionally, we discuss the current challenges facing 3D models and propose potential strategies for constructing in vitro models that more accurately simulate the pathophysiology of the fibrotic stroma, aiming for their application in clinical settings. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue 3D Tissue Engineering Techniques and Their Applications)
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