UTSW awarded $25M for research on 3D printing functional liver tissue

The UT Southwestern Medical Center (UTSW) is working on a federally funded research effort aimed at producing functional liver tissue using 3D printing.

Supported by the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), the project is funded with up to $25 million over 5 years and is being conducted under a project known as Vascularized Immunocompetent Tissue as an Alternative Liver (VITAL). It is part of the agency’s Personalized Regenerative Immunocompetent Nanotechnology Tissue (PRINT) program. 

Efforts to address the organ shortage, including the use of living donors and improved preservation of donor organs, have not eliminated the gap between supply and demand. Adding to that, liver transplantation also requires long-term immunosuppression and carries high costs, with the average procedure costing close to $1 million.

The project aims to produce laboratory-made liver tissue for transplantation and for pharmaceutical testing and research. It involves collecting cells from patients with liver disease, converting them into induced pluripotent stem cells, and directing them to become the different liver cell types. These cells will be then combined with a hydrogel bioink and used for bioprinting liver tissue.

“This project represents a bold step toward advancing patient care through biomedical innovation,” said Samuel Achilefu, Ph.D., inaugural Chair of Biomedical Engineering and Professor in the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center and of Radiology at UTSW. “It unites engineers, clinicians, and scientists to transform discovery into real-world solutions, shaping a future where functional organ printing becomes reality.”

Patient biopsy-derived liver organoids can serve as building blocks for biofabrication of a personalized, patient-specific whole liver. This image shows liver organoids generated from a patient liver biopsy with alcoholic liver disease. CD44 is shown in red marking liver organoids, and cell nuclei are shown in blue. (Photo credit: Sunil Shrestha, Ph.D., postdoctoral fellow, Rizwan Lab / UTSW.)

Building a functional printed liver

One of the main technical problems the project is intended to address is the difficulty of creating functional blood vessels and bile ducts inside printed tissue. These structures are necessary for normal liver function, and their absence has limited earlier efforts to scale laboratory-grown liver tissue into a full artificial organ. 

Under the research plan, the printed liver tissue will first be tested in small animal models and then in large animal models, with the possibility of testing in humans in about five years. The researchers estimate that producing a bioprinted liver could take approximately 10 to 13 weeks. 

Because the organs would be made from a patient’s own cells, the project states that transplant recipients would not require immunosuppressive drugs. In addition to potential use in transplantation, the artificial livers are also intended to be used for laboratory research and drug development. 

The project includes collaboration with academic partners working on 3D printing and cell manufacturing processes. These include Pennsylvania State University (PSU) and University of California, Davis (UC Davis).

The state of liver bioprinting research

According to federal organ donation data, more than 100,000 people in the United States are currently waiting for an organ transplant, and an average of 13 patients die each day before receiving one. With technological advancements, bioprinting of liver tissue could eventually help reduce dependence on donor organs by providing an alternative source of functional liver grafts.

The progress is apparent in an example from researchers at Utrecht University developing working liver tissue constructs in under 20 seconds by using ultrafast volumetric 3D bioprinting method. This process printed stem-cell-derived organoids into functional 3D architectures that showed improved detoxification activity and included porous structures for nutrient perfusion. 

The work suggests bioprinting is moving beyond small, fragile lab models toward rapid fabrication of larger, functional liver tissues suitable for drug testing and, eventually, regenerative applications.

Volumetric bioprinting of liver-like metabolic biofactories. Image via Advanced Materials.

Elsewhere, University of Tokyo researchers bioprinted a scaffold-free human mini-liver using the Regenova bioprinter and the Kenzan method, assembling cell spheroids on removable needle-like supports instead of a permanent scaffold. 

After four days of perfusion culture, the cells fused into stable tissue that showed sustained drug, glucose, lipid, and bile acid metabolism, along with self-organization and extracellular matrix production. By avoiding artificial scaffolds while preserving long-term function, the work signals progress toward more physiologically realistic bioprinted liver tissue for drug testing and, eventually, regenerative applications.

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Author: Ada Shaikhnag