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Refining the science behind Biofabrication

 

NUS Faculty of Dentistry researcher Assistant Professor Nileshkumar Dubey joins a stellar cast of researchers for the Interstellar Initiative 2021-2022

The Interstellar Initiative 2021-2022 Workshop recognizes the world’s most promising Early Career Investigators and connects them with peers. Presented jointly by The New York Academy of Sciences and the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development, the Interstellar Initiative strives to connect related but distinct disciplines, providing a platform for them to develop a solution in the area of Healthy Longevity.

This year, the NUS Faculty of Dentistry is proud that one of our very own, Assistant Professor Nileshkumar Dubey, will be joining the initiative as part of a three-man team. The team is looking at exploring the area of Biofabrication and will be presenting their proposals at the virtual conference in September.

“Biofabrication offers new possibilities for engineering living tissue/organs with fine anatomic control and cellular composition by layering cytocompatible bioinks, potentially revolutionizing regenerative medicine, cancer, and drug discovery, to improve healthspan and prevent pathological aging. Biofabrication of tissues/organ has shown remarkable results in vitro but are challenging to translate to the bedside. In this project, I wish to refine the biofabrication techniques, exploration in biology and develop new bioinks, all of which are critical steps to translate this technique from bench to bedside,” Dubey shared.

Biofabrication has always been an area of interest to Assistant Professor Dubey, who had previously worked on a project exploring the biofabrication of tissue constructs grown in a laboratory to replace damaged or diseased human tissues with functional tissue. In recognition of this, he was given the opportunity to be part of the Interstellar Initiative, an opportunity that he is looking forward to.

“I'm honoured to be a part of the Interstellar Initiative and to collaborate with my dream team and mentors from all around the world to address the major challenges in the field of Healthy Longevity. I am very excited about our research plan, which may lead to novel treatments for chronic-age-related illnesses like cancer, neurological disease, cardiovascular disease, and others,” said Dubey.