At IMDEA Materials Institute, a new line of research is emerging with the potential to change how we treat injuries and degenerative diseases.

The goal: to create tissues and implants capable of regenerating parts of the human body, from bone and cartilage, to ligaments and tendons.

“I want to focus on the development of new tissue engineering strategies,” explains Dr. Pedro J. Díaz Payno, head of the institute’s new Tissue Engineering and Biomedical Materials research group.

“In my case, that means engineering advanced biomaterials and organoids – miniature organ models – that can be used for regenerative medicine.”

“Ultimately, what I want to do is generate functional tissues and even whole organs, rather than offering partial solutions that simply act as temporary patches for the patient’s problem.”

After years of specialising in this field during his PhD and postdoctoral work, Dr. Díaz-Payno sees Spain as fertile ground for innovation. He is the founder and president of the new Spanish Society for Regenerative Medicine and Tissue Engineering (SEMIT). As a fast-emerging research area, tissue engineering has the potential to provide new solutions for conditions that currently have limited treatment options.

“Take bone cancer as an example,” says Dr. Díaz-Payno. “When the affected bone needs to be removed, there is a gap that is usually filled with a donor bone, a bone graft from elsewhere, or a ceramic paste. However, these solutions don’t always work well for all patients.”

“There can be problems with compatibility or risks of disease transmission that can compromise the patient’s well-being. So, people working in tissue engineering want to make a bone that is truly yours, tailored specifically for you, with the right mechanical properties and personalised design or composition,” he adds

“Thanks to new technological developments, such as advanced material fabrication and additive manufacturing, it is possible to build such complex solutions”.

Dr. Díaz-Payno’s new group represents the institute’s latest step into the field of biomedical materials.

IMDEA Materials already boasts an established ecosystem of biomedical materials research, including groups dedicated to biomaterials and regenerative medicine, biometals, coatings and devices, as well as bioinspired, smart, and living materials.

The new group will focus on the development of advanced scaffolds based on 3D porous biomaterials for diverse musculoskeletal tissue engineering applications such as: bone, cartilage, ligaments, meniscus, and other connective tissues.

“In Spain at the moment, there are few people doing what I specialise in, which is the tailoring of freeze-dried, sponge-like implants that have a tailored pore architecture. These are lightweight, and are particularly interesting as off-the-shelf products,” he explains.

“These dry scaffolds allow cells to easily enter and deposit their own tissue. This contrasts with hydrogels, that are sometimes too dense. This limits their use in regenerative implants.”

The applications of this research extend beyond repairing tissue damage.

Such biomaterials can also be used to create disease models: lab-grown tissue systems that mimic human organs and allow scientists to test new drugs without relying on animal experiments.

“Reducing animal testing is a major goal in current European and American research programmes,” says Dr. Díaz-Payno.

“Tissue-engineered organ models can help us study diseases and drug responses in a more ethical and realistic way.”

Looking ahead, Dr. Díaz-Payno envisions a future where lab-grown tissues could replace many prosthetics. They could even serve as miniature biofactories, producing complex therapeutic proteins or compounds that are currently derived from animals, and which cannot be synthesised via conventional microbiological or animal cells in 2D systems.

“The human body takes nine months to develop inside the womb and involves an incredible complexity of growth factors and mechano-signals,” he reflects. “What we can recreate in the lab is still minimal by comparison. That’s why we need the development of key breakthrough technologies and new research strategies to accelerate the process.”