Use of Continuous Liquid Interface Production (CLIP) to Develop Rationally Designed 3D Scaffolds to Deliver Therapeutic Neural Stem Cells for the Treatment of Glioblastoma

Glioblastoma (GBM) is an aggressive malignant brain tumor with dismal survival outcomes. Traditional chemotherapy and radiation regimens are insufficient for extending the median survival time of GBM patients past 12-15 months, and new agents often fail in clinical trials due to poor brain permeability, potency, and tolerability. Cell therapies have the potential to provide a more robust therapeutic effect against invasive, heterogenous tumors like GBM. Despite the promise of cell therapies, many fall short of clinical success due to poor in vivo delivery, in which cell therapies are rapidly cleared from local injection sites or exhibit poor tumor trafficking and high toxicity with systemic delivery. Many reports in literature utilize biomaterial systems to encapsulate and deliver cells locally in vivo, wherein the material system serves as a protective matrix to prevent the cells from being rapidly cleared from the implantation site. 3D printing provides the opportunity to design materials with unique architectural features that can enhance cell therapy for cancer treatment. This dissertation details the use of continuous liquid interface production (CLIP) as a unique 3D printing technique for creating anticancer cell therapy delivery devices using two distinct cell seeding strategies: external seeding and bioprinting.