Partners

In ENLIGHT, a multidisciplinary consortium from four academic centers, including one academic hospital and two technical universities, two large companies, an advanced technology SME and a non-profit foundation are joining forces to develop a new bioprinting approach to build lab-made engineered pancreatic models. Our team is based in the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium and Sweden. Get to know our team members by clicking on each dedicated institutional logo below.

ENLIGHT unites unique expertise: synthetic biology (ETH Zurich), bioprinting and tissue engineering (UMC Utrecht), physics and photonics (EPFL, R3D), stem cells (UNA), biomaterials (Rousselot, UMC Utrecht), pharmaceutics (ASZ), and social sciences (FGB).

With over 11,000 employees and over 1000 beds, the University Medical Center Utrecht (UMCU) is one of the largest and highly rated academic medical centres in the Netherlands. In addition to providing advanced healthcare and medical education, UMCU performs high-quality biomedical research, including the development of new regenerative treatments and innovative biomedical technologies in the field of Biofabrication and 3D bioprinting and disease modelling. Within the institute, the Utrecht Biofabrication Facility, embedded in the Department of Orthopaedics, is a world-leading state-of-the-art laboratory for advanced biomanufacturing, that is pioneering bioprinting solutions to engineer complex biomimetic tissues, including the musculoskeletal system, endocrine systems, heart, and liver. UMCU is also founding partner of the Utrecht Advanced In Vitro Models hub (U-AIM), a cross-faculty platform that aims at expediting the translation and industrial utilization of in vitro and ex vivo 3D tissue models.

Riccardo Levato

Riccardo Levato is associate professor in Translational Bioengineering and Biomaterials at the Department of Clinical Sciences of Utrecht University, and Principal Investigator at the University Medical Center Utrecht. He holds a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the Technical University of Catalonia and from the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia. His research focuses on the development of novel biofabrication technologies and cell-instructive biomaterials to recreate in the lab advanced living tissue constructs and complex organoid-based structures. He will coordinate the ENLIGHT team, and, at UMCU, will lead the volumetric bioprinting of the vascularized pancreatic structures as well as the development of new bioresins for stem cell culture.

Jos Malda

Jos Malda is professor of Biofabrication in translational regenerative medicine, and Head of Research at the Department of Orthopaedics, University Medical Center Utrecht and the Department of Equine Sciences, University of Utrecht. He also leads the Utrecht Biofabrication Facility. He received his PhD on Cartilage Tissue Engineering in 2003 (University of Twente). His research particularly focuses on biofabrication and biomaterials design, especially for the regeneration of (osteo)chondral defects,and for the generation of in vitro and organ-on-chip model. Within ENLIGHT, he will contribute to the development of bioprintable materials and support the bioprinting tasks within the project.

Davide Ribezzi

Davide holds a MSc in Biomechanics and Biomaterials from Politecnico di Milano, and he is currently a PhD student in Biofabrication and Regenerative Medicine. He is strongly engaged by med-tech sector and spurred by challenges related to biofabrication combined to cell bioengineering. His project focuses on the bioprinting of physiological-scale pancreas organoids that replicate human organ-level functionality.

Gabriel Größbacher

Gabriel is an Austrian computer scientist; he holds an MSc in Biofabrication (Utrecht University). He started his PhD in 2022 under the supervision of Dr. Riccardo Levato. He has a background in software engineering and ample experience with different 3D (bio)printing systems and automation technologies. In ENLIGHT, he focuses on the development of the dynamic culture system for the printed organoids.

Kristine Stickney

Kristine is a  Project Manager at UMC Utrecht in the Research Support Office. She graduated with an MSc in Neurosciences from Vrije Universiteit, cum laude. She has  8 years of experience in life sciences project management for both CROs and non-profit academic research organizations. She has managed a diverse portfolio of projects and has worked in a wide-variety of academic and commercial settings.

Oksana Dudaryeva

Oksana is a postdoc within the ENLIGHT project. Her research focuses on creating a functional, living pancreatic construct applying a combination of organoid culture, material design and volumetric bioprinting. Oksana obtained her BSc and MSc at the  Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands. She performed an internship in the Kristi Anseth group at CU Boulder, USA, with focus on developing viscoelastic PEG hydrogels. She obtained her PhD from Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. During her PhD she designed  single cell encapsulation platforms and worked on skin tissue engineering, biomaterials with dynamic mechanical properties, and on macroporous materials via controlled liquid-liquid phase separation.

Pere Catala Quilis

Pere is a postdoctoral researcher at the Regenerative Medicine Center Utrecht (RMCU). He performed his PhD training at the MERLN Institute for Technology-Inspired Regenerative Medicine and Maastricht UMC+ (the Netherlands) investigating (stem) cell replacement regenerative therapies for the cornea. His research within ENLIGHT will focus on the generation of iPSC-derived pancreatic cells and pseudo-islets as source to bioprint pancreatic constructs.

The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) is a research institute and university specializing in natural sciences and engineering. EPFL ranks among the top research institutes in Europe and has research and technology transfer as two of its main missions.

The Laboratory of Applied Photonics Devices (LAPD), part of the School of Engineering, specializes in developing practical industrial applications of novel light-based technologies, as well as more fundamental research work. LAPD is developing photonics devices that control light at the nano and microscopic scale to engineer applied systems at the macroscopic scale. The team, merging knowledge from optic physics, bio-imaging, signal processing, automation, programming and engineering, develops innovative photonics devices and software routines to operate them, and to perform image analysis and diagnostics. Key lines of research include: i) 3D printing and imaging via two photon devices, multimode fibers and femtosecond light sources, ii) advanced imaging of biological tissues for early diagnostic, and iii) the use of light for additive manufacturing. In particular, the group has done pioneering work on true volumetric printing by using tomographic projections for high resolution printing of 3D objects in hard and soft materials. The first experimental demonstration and patent filing were done in 2017 and public dissemination of the results were published in Advanced Materials in 2019 and Nature Communications in 2020.

LAPD is also devoted to the translation of the innovation from the lab to industry and society, with three successful spin-off companies coming from the lab since 2014.

Christophe Moser
Christophe Moser is an associate professor in the Electrical and MicroEngineering department at EPFL. He obtained his PhD at the California Institute of Technology. His interests are optical imaging, control of light in multimode fibers and 3D printing with light. Recently he co-founded Readily3D, a start-up developing novel solutions for bioprinting. He will lead the investigation of high-resolution printing in turbid media at EPFL in the Enlight project.

Jorge Madrid-Wolff
Jorge Madrid-Wolff is a PhD student in Photonics at EPFL, where he works in volumetric additive manufacturing. He holds a diploma in Physics and a Master’s in Biomedical Engineering from Los Andes University, in Colombia. He will work on high-resolution printing in scattering media and in quantifying the effect of light on the bioprinted cells.

Rousselot® (ROU) is the world-wide leading producer of gelatin and collagen peptides, with facilities and sales offices on every continent. Important gelatin markets for Rousselot are: pharma (gelatin for hard and soft capsules), food (gelatin), nutrition (collagen peptides ‘Peptan®’) and biomedical (modified and non-modfied gelatins and collagens ‘X-pure®’; www.rousselot.com/biomedical). The R&D center of ROU is located in Gent (Belgium) and has a state-of-the-art laboratory. In addition to gelatin/collagen peptide R&D, the center also does gelatin/collagen peptide application development  for Europe, the Middle-East, Japan and South East Asia. Additional application laboratories are located in China and South-America.

ROU believes in open innovation and co-development with companies (end-users) and research institutes, to understand end-user/application requirements and to develop suitable gelatins. ROU is constantly seeking opportunities to create gelatin products in application fields that are inherently complex in terms of regulations and quality demands, and sees regenerative medicine as a very important growing market. Rousselot offers modified and non-modified X-pure® gelatins with tunable rheological properties produced with different processes and raw materials.

Rousselot R&D’s analytical toolbox is perfectly suited to characterize the different types of commercially available gelatins, and to produce and characterize gelatin-derivatives, carefully tailored to the demand of the biomedical applications. Modifications that allow the tunability of  physical and chemical characteristics are all compatible with in vivo/in situ applications. As a member of the Darling Ingredients Group, ROU also has the advantage to have access to a wide range of ECM materials and tissues via other business units.

Jan-Philip Zegwaart
Principal scientist within the ENLIGHT project. Jan-Philip is responsible for design, development, and execution of polymeric (gelatin) material development, including ECM components, and volumetric 3D printing. Jan-Philip studied Biomedical Engineering at Twente University (the Netherlands) and he did his phd research at Ghent University (Belgium) in the Polymer Chemistry and Biomaterials group. During his multi-disciplinary PhD, he developed new polymeric materials (patent pending), (co-)authored four scientific papers (pending or in preparation) and co-authored a follow-up project (Industrieel Onderzoeksfonds IOF-project, which was approved) to bring the results of his PhD closer to clinical practice.

Jos Olijve
Scientific Support Manager with a biochemical background. Joined Rousselot in 2012 and is currently responsible for biomedical innovation and co-development projects with academia, institutes and customers to gain new insights on the behavior of gelatin in biomedical and pharmaceutical applications to developnew product and applications . Before joining Rousselot he worked at FujiFim Manufacturing Europe B.V. where he was responsible for the development of photographic gelatins and the characterization and  development of medical recombinant gelatin products. He holds 16 patents/patent applications and is the (co)author of 14 scientific papers.

The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich is one of the leading universities for technology and natural sciences in the world. ETH is well-known for its excellent education, ground-breaking fundamental research and for implementing its results directly into practice. Founded in 1855, ETH Zurich today has more than 18,500 students from over 110 countries, including 4,000 doctoral students. To researchers, it offers an inspiring working environment, to students, a comprehensive education.

 

The Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering (D-BSSE) is a research department of ETH. Research at the D-BSSE is dedicated to human health and disease, production processes in industry, and their impact on the environment. Therefore, the department forms an interdisciplinary community of experimental and computational biologists and engineers. The Biotechnology and Bioengineering Research Group uses molecular biology to engineer mammalian cells. By rewiring existing signalling pathways or by the implementation of completely synthetic gene circuits, engineered cells gain the capacity to autonomously sense extrinsic factors and to produce and release molecules with therapeutic potential. Together with the development of synthetic receptors this approach shifts cell-based therapies and advanced in vitro models towards a higher level in personalized medicine. Among the targeted applications, the generation of pancreatic cells and solutions to treat diabetes are a particular focus within the group for more than 10 years, and the team holds ample expertise on pancreatic cell biology and diabetes in vivo murine models.

Martin Fussenegger

Prof. Martin Fussenegger is Professor of Biotechnology and Bioengineering at the Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering at ETH and the University of Basel, where he leads the Biotechnology and Bioengineering Research Group. His research focuses on mammalian cell engineering, in particular on the assembly of synthetic gene circuits that process complex control and closed-loop expression logic as well as on the production of theranostic designer cell implants that interface with host metabolism to correct prominent metabolic disorders. Martin Fussenegger graduated with Werner Arber at the Biocenter of the University of Basel (1992), obtained his PhD in Medical Microbiology (1994) at the Max Planck Institute of Biology (Tübingen, Germany) and continued his postdoctoral studies on host-pathogen interactions at the Max Planck Institute of Infection Biology (Berlin, 1995).

Prof. Fussenegger joined the ETH Institute of Biotechnology in 1996, where he received his habilitation in 2000, and became Swiss National Science Foundation Professor of Molecular Biotechnology in 2002, prior to being awarded a Chair in Biotechnology and Bioengineering at the ETH Institute for Chemical and Bioengineering in 2004. On a presidential mission, he moved to Basel in 2008 to build up the Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering of ETH. Prof. Fussenegger received the Gaden Award, the Merck Cell Culture Engineering Award, the Medal of the European Society for Animal Cell Technology (ESACT), the Gutenberg Chair Excellence Award, two consecutive Advanced Grant Awards of the European Research Council and the James E. Bailey Award. Martin Fussenegger is a member of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences (SATW), EMBO and a foreign member of the United States of America National Academy of Engineering (NAE).

Andreas Hierholzer

Dr. Andreas Hierholzer graduated from ETH Zurich (Zurich, Switzerland) in Biotechnology and received his PhD in Developmental Biology at the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics (Freiburg, Germany) in 2010. From 2013 till 2019 he was a Lab Manager and Research Scientist at EMBL Rome in the Group of Phil Avner, where he investigated the dynamics of epigenetic regulation in stem-cell based in vitro systems. Since 2019 he is part of the Biotechnology and Bioengineering Research Group.

AstraZeneca (ASZ) is a global, science-led biopharmaceutical business with innovative medicines that are used by millions of patients worldwide. ASZ covers the entire life-cycle of a medicine: from R&D to manufacturing and supply, and to the global commercialisation of primary care and specialty care medicines. The products portfolio of ASZ covers major disease areas, including cancer, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, infection, neuroscience, respiratory and inflammation. ASZ is a multinational pharmaceutical company with research and production hubs in multiple countries. The corporate headquarters are in Cambridge (UK), and the main R&D centres are located in Cambridge (UK), Gaithersburg (Maryland, US), Gothenburg/Mölndal (Sweden) and Warsaw (Poland).

 

The Clinical Pharmacology and Safety Science (CPSS) department is among the biggest pharmaceutical departments in the world, with approximately 700fte employees worldwide. The majority of cardiovascular and metabolics research takes place at the Gothenburg location. There is a strong commitment to research, with a focus on in vivo and alternative models for drug development and early safety. ASZ CPSS is recognized as a world-leading department for drug safety and has several research collaborations aimed to discover new and better translatable pre-clinical models that more closely resemble human disease. Within the CPSS department, many cross functional groups play a pivotal role for the drug development value chain, including the imaging team, the pathology unit, the functional and mechanistic and the quantitative pharmacology department. The CPSS also works in close contact with all other Therapeutic Areas, and supports the drug development from the discovery phase to preclinical and clinical phase thus having a transformative role in turning a small molecule into a medicine for patients.

The Gene Therapy Safety group within the CPSS is entirely dedicated to the discovery of alternative and more translatable models of human diseases for the safe development of therapeutic biologics.

Roberto Nitsch

Dr. Roberto Nitsch leads the Gene Therapy Safety group of ASZ and is responsible for the early and late safety of novel genetic medicines. Dr. Nitsch graduated in Medical Biotechnology from the University of Naples (Italy), where he also obtained a PhD in Molecular Genetics. After an initial research focus on epigenetics, gene regulation, mouse genetics and cancer biology, he shifted focus towards recessive genetics and genome engineering. He joined ASZ in 2014 as part of the Precise Genome Editing team, where he became responsible for in vivo applications of CRISPR to generate translatable mouse models for drug discovery with focus on oncology models. Since 2017, he is Associate Director in the Clinical Pharmacology and Safety Sciences as responsible for the safety assessment of CRISPR applications in Therapeutic Genome Editing. Today Dr. Nitsch is a leader in gene therapy safety and the representative for ASZ at the international consortium driven by the US federal institute NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology).

University of Naples “Federico II” (UNA) is the principal academic institution in Naples and the third biggest in Italy. UNA has over 80,000 students and ~5000 staff members involved in 26 departments, covering all the main fields in Life Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities and Physical Sciences and Engineering.

 

The Department of Molecular Medicine and Medical Biotechnology (DMMBM) carries out research activities on the structure and function of biological molecules and their involvement in the pathogenesis of human diseases, development of innovative biotechnological approaches for prevention, and diagnosis and treatment of human diseases. The DMMBM strongly promotes the dissemination of research results, lifelong formation, transfer of knowledge and technology as a factor of socio-economic development and scientific cooperation. Therefore, DMMBM collaborates with numerous stakeholders, including clinical institutions and pharmaceutical industries.

Massimiliano Caiazzo

Dr. Massimiliano Caiazzo is Assistant Professor of Molecular Biology at DMMBM at UNA since 2019. His research focuses on the use of biomaterials and cell reprogramming approaches applied to the generation of 3D in vitro models. Dr. Caiazzo obtained his PhD at UNA, followed by an internship at Montreal Neurological Institute (McGill University, Montreal) in the field of developmental biology and stem cells, and post-doctoral experience at hospital San Raffaele (Milan) where he was involved in pioneering studies in cell reprogramming and transdifferentiation. He finally completed his training at EPFL in the Laboratory of Stem Cell and Bioengineering, where he combined the use of 3D hydrogels to cell reprogramming and organogenesis. Dr. Caiazzo started his independent career in 2016 at Utrecht University where he works on biofabrication of advanced in vitro models combining cell reprogramming and hydrogel 3D-culture.

Dr. Carmen Caiazza is Postdoctoral Researcher at DMMBM at UNA. She graduated in Medical Biotechnology from University of Naples “Federico II” where she also obtained a PhD in Molecular Medicine and Medical Biotechnology. Within ENLIGHT she will contribute to the generation of a reporter system for pancreatic biomarkers in order to assess the performance of the bioprinted organoids.

Martina Paladino is a PhD student on ENLIGHT. She graduated in Medical Biotechnology in October 2021. She is working with the Professor Caiazzo’s team on the generation of a reporter system to follow the differentation of human stem cells in β and α cells during the formation of pancreas organoid.

Simona Aversano is research fellow at Department of Molecular Medicine and Medical Biotechnology. She holds a Master’s degree in Medical Biotechnology from University of Naples Federico II.  In 2022, She joined Caiazzo’s team and she will contribute to the development of a reporter system to follow the differentiation of bioprinted pancreatic organoids.

Readily3D (R3D) is a spin-off from the Laboratory of Applied Photonics Devices from EPFL and maintains a close relation with the institute. R3D pioneered the use of volumetric bioprinting for the manufacturing of complex living‐tissue constructs. The co-founders invented the volumetric additive manufacturing during their doctoral studies and received grants to translate this technology from the laboratory into a marketable product.

The company has developed a compact standalone volumetric bioprinter that is currently being field-tested within the laboratories of scientific partners. In addition, R3D is creating complementary hardware and software to further improve its bioprinting solutions.

Paul Delrot

Dr. Paul Delrot is co-founder and CTO of R3D. He holds a PhD in photonics, during which he pioneered the development of micro-additive manufacturing through endoscopic probes. He has co-authored 9 publications and holds 3 patent applications. In ENLIGHT he will develop new hardware for compatible 3D printing and optogenetic cell differentiation.

Max Kollep

Max Kollep is a R&D engineer at Readily3D. He has a master’s degree in microengineering from EPFL and will be working on the hardware development for the 3D printer.

 

Fondazione Giannino Bassetti (FGB) was founded in 1994 and has been promoting responsibility within the technosciences, entrepreneurship, and governance for 25 years, acting as a pioneer CSO in fostering the concept and the practice of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI). The founder and present of FGB, Piero Bassetti, is one of the key names in RRI and was interviewed for the International Handbook on Responsible Innovation A Global Resource (released in 2019 by Edward Elgar Publishing). FGB regularly deals with stakeholder and citizen engagement activities, acting as a neutral and reliable space in which dialogue can flourish.

 

Mobilising and consolidating communities of practice, FGB promotes cooperation between the drivers of innovation, weaving networks between research sites, industrial players, civil society and institutions, creating transverse and cutting-edge relationships. FGB is also an affiliate member of the Virtual Institute of Responsible Innovation, the largest community devoted to discussing and promoting reflections and practices of RRI. Furthermore, FGB is on the editorial board of the Journal of Responsible Innovation—the first journal fully devoted to this theme.

Angela Simone

Dr. Angela Simone, PhD is a public and stakeholder engagement expert and project manager (in-house consultant) with extensive experience in EU projects. She was the project and communication manager of BIOPOP (FP6); communication manager in CIRCE (FP6); communication officer in VOICES (FP7); involved in coordinating the training activities in Italy in RRI TOOLS (FP7); communication manager in SOCIETY (H2020); and deputy coordinator of SMART-map (H2020). Simone is currently a member of the advisory boards of the H2020 SUPER_MoRRI and e-Sides projects. She was also invited to several stakeholder events of RRI-related projects as a participant and speaker. Since 2010, she is designing and managing several national and international EU projects dealing with science and technology impacts on society and responsible innovation. Currently, she is the executive manager of the Lombardy Region Forum for Research and Innovation, an advisory body to introduce RRI and technology assessment processes in the region. In this context, she will lead a broad local public deliberation to assess if and how to introduce genome sequencing techniques. She regularly lectures on science communication, public engagement, RRI, open science, and open data in national and international workshops. Dr. Simone is the author of several Italian publications on RRI and hundreds of journalistic articles on science, technology, and open culture. She is a peer reviewer of JCom: The Journal of Public Communication. Simone holds a MSc in Biotechnology, a further Advanced Master in Public Communication of Science, and a PhD in Law and Bioethics of New Technologies. Whilst obtaining her doctorate, she was a visiting fellow of the Science, Technology and Society Program at JFK-Harvard University.