Biomaterial solutions for tissue engineering and bioprinting

3D bioprinting is a promising technique that enables future advances in personalized medicine, drug and toxicity screening, and organ replacement. A key component of 3D bioprinting is the bioink, a mixture of live cells, biomaterials and bioactive molecules. The ideal bioink is easily extruded, has a high print fidelity, can maintain the desired 3D architecture and is biocompatible to the incorporated cells throughout the entire process. Current bioinks do not meet all these criteria. New biomaterials that are designed especially for extrusion bioprinting are therefore needed. My research focusses on the development of novel polymer-based bioinks using a high-throughput system that enables screening of a library of polymer-based bioinks for their physicochemical and mechanical properties. This will lead to the generation of polymer-based bioinks with the desired printability, print fidelity, mechanical properties and biocompatibility for quality-assured bioprinting, improving biofabrication, cell therapy and biotherapeutics.

​I am an interdisiplinary researcher with an interest in tissue engineering, biomaterials and polymer chemistry. Currently, I am a postdoctoral research fellow on bio-ink development in the group of Prof. Justin Cooper-White. I completed my PhD at Monash University in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering under supervision of A/Prof. Jess Frith, Prof. Neil Cameron, and Prof. Rocky Tuan, on tissue engineered hydrogel scaffolds to study bone-tendon interface development. I was awarded my Bachelor of Science (2015) and Master of Science (2017) in Molecular Life Sciences from Radboud University, Nijmegen. 

Key Publications

I. Donderwinkel, J.C.M. van Hest, N.R. Cameron, "Bio-inks for 3D Bioprinting: Recent Advances and Future Prospects", Polymer Chemistry, 2017, 8, 4451-4471, DOI: 10.1039/C7PY00826K.

V.X. Truong, I. Donderwinkel, J.E. Frith, "Bioorthogonal hydrogels by thiol-halide click crosslinking with fast gelation time and tunable stability in aqueous media", Journal of Polymer Science Part A: Polymer Chemistry, 2018, 57, 1872-1876, DOI: 10.1002/pola.29267

J. Carthew, I. Donderwinkel, S. Shrestha, J.E. Frith, (2019) Physical Stimulation in Tissue-Engineering. In: Seppänen-Kaijansinkko R. (eds) Tissue Engineering in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. Springer, Cham. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-24517-7_4 

J. Carthew, I. Donderwinkel, S. Shrestha, V.X. Truong, J.S. Forsythe, J.E. Frith, "In situ miRNA delivery from a hydrogel promotes osteogenesis of encapsulated mesenchymal stromal cells", Acta Biomaterialia, 2020, 101, 249-261, DOI: 10.1016/j.actbio.2019.11.016