Dr. Shiwarski is an Assistant Professor within the Department of Bioengineering and the Vascular Medicine Institute at the University of Pittsburgh. He obtained a combined undergraduate degree from Bucknell University in cell biology and biochemistry, a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences and Neuroscience from Carnegie Mellon University and the Center for Neural Basis of Cognition, and completed a Postdoctoral fellowship in Biomedical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University in cellular biomechanics and tissue engineering.

The key innovation in Freeform Reversible Embedding of Suspended Hydrogels (FRESH) 3D bioprinting is the extrusion and embedding of an ECM hydrogel within a support bath that holds the extruded gel in place during printing.

In a recent publication in Science we showcased FRESH by 3D printing collagen-I into functional components of the human heart. Multiple bioinks can be printed including alginate, fibrin, collagen-I, methacrylated hyaluronic acid, decellularized ECM, and Matrigel demonstrating our ability to utilize a range of bioinks to tune scaffold composition.

Recently, we created a collagen-based 3D bioprinted vascular microfluidic platform using FRESH bioprinting (CHIPS) as well as the development of a custom perfusion bioreactor for long-term perfusion culture (VAPOR). Together, these systems establish the foundation for design and fabrication to accurately and reproducibly bioprint any 3D fluidic channel design within a collagen-scaffold. At the University of Pittsburgh in the Departments of Bioengineering and Vascular Medicine Institute we collaborate with many investigators from the School of Medicine and Carnegie Mellon University to incorporate physiological readouts, bioelectronics, and real-time fluorescence imaging into our platforms for organ-on-chip systems to study human vascular, kidney, and pancreatic disease.