ACMD Special Guest Seminar | Microfluidic and 3D Bioprinting Convergence for Cancer Modelling and Skeletal Regeneration

ACMD SPECIAL GUEST SEMINAR

We are delighted to welcome Gianluca Cidonio from the University of Rome La Sapienza and the Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), Rome, Italy, for a special guest seminar:

Microfluidic and 3D Bioprinting Convergence for Cancer Modelling and Skeletal Regeneration

📅 21 October 2026
⏰ 3:00pm - 6:00pm
📍 The Brenda Shanahan AO Auditorium, L1, The Aikenhead Centre for Medical Discovery (ACMD), 27 Victoria Parade, Fitzroy, 3065

Bone is the preferred site of breast cancer metastasis, yet current pre-clinical models often struggle to reproduce the complex tumour–stroma interface and the processes involved in skeletal colonisation.

In this seminar, Gianluca will discuss how microfluidic-assisted 3D bioprinting can be used to engineer spatially organised, tissue-specific compartments and develop a 3D breast-to-bone (B2B) metastasis model.

The seminar will cover:

• Microfluidic-assisted 3D bioprinting and bioink design

• Engineering bone-like tissue and tumour–stroma interfaces

• Modelling breast cancer invasion and skeletal colonisation

• The role of tissue-resident growth factors in skeletal homing

• Future directions including human ECM-derived bioinks and vascularised models

• Potential applications to other bone malignancies, including osteosarcoma

Please join us for this special guest seminar and an opportunity to hear about the latest developments at the intersection of biofabrication, cancer modelling and regenerative engineering.

About the Speaker: Prof Gianluca Cidonio is an Associate Professor and Principal Investigator of the MoRe (Model and Regenerate) 3D Lab at the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, at Sapienza University of Rome. He is also a Junior Fellow of the Superior School for Advanced studies Sapienza (SSAS) and Junior member of the Italian Academy of Engineering and Technology (ITATEC).
Prof Cidonio obtained his BSc and MSc in Biomedical Engineering from Sapienza University of Rome, with a 12-month Fellowship to visit Temple University and completed his PhD at the University of Southampton (UK), within the Bone & Joint Research Group led by Prof. Richard Oreffo, where he developed nanocomposite bioinks for skeletal tissue regeneration. He was subsequently awarded the EPSRC Doctoral Prize Fellowship to advance printable living bone constructs and joined in 2019 the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) as Postdoctoral Fellow and Team Leader of the Bioprinting lab, where he pioneered microfluidic-assisted bioprinting approaches for regenerative medicine and disease modelling. Prof Cidonio is the recipient of prestigious fellowships and awards, including the AIRC ALDI Fellowship and the €1.99M ERC Starting Grant (BRIDGE). Prof Cidonio’s research focuses on engineering complex 3D tissue interfaces through microfluidic bioprinting for translational applications in musculoskeletal regeneration and cancer modelling. He is actively engaged in scientific dissemination as Communications Officer for TERMIS-EU, editorial board member for leading bioprinting journals, and lecturer in regenerative medicine engineering at Sapienza University