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Abstract

Gelatin methacrylate (GelMA), a photocrosslinkable gelatin-based hydrogel, has been immensely used for diverse applications of tissue engineering and drug delivery. Apart from its excellent functionality and versatile mechanical properties, they are also suitable for a wide range of fabrication methodologies to generate tissue constructs of desired size and shape. Recently, GelMA has been blended with various natural and synthetic biomaterials to reinforce its physical properties to match the tissue to be engineered. This thesis presents the development of two different types of bioinks using nanomaterials mixed with GelMA. Bentonite clay nanoparticle plays a role in reinforcing GelMA by enhancing the mechanical properties of the crosslinked GelMA as bentonite works as a physical crosslinked to the GelMA chains and supports the physical morphology of the samples. It is observed that using 1% bentonite with 7% GelMA the compressive modulus increased from 10 kPa to around 18 kPa. On the other hand, this thesis covers the effect of bentonite particles on the physical property of the GelMA. It is noticed that micro-size bentonite particles do not affect the mechanical property of the GelMA because of the agglomeration of bentonite particles, but nano-bentonite instead showed an enhancement in particle size distribution within the hydrogel matrix. On the other hand, this thesis discusses the development of an electrically conductive bioink using ornithine amino acid. We introduce a new concept of ornithine-methacrylate which make ornithine suitable as a bioink for neural tissue engineering. This thesis discusses the use of 5, 10 and 15% ornithine with GelMA and the enhancement in the electrical conductivity with increasing ornithine concentration. In addition, with astrocytes in 2D and 3D experiments, it is observed that ornithine maintained cell viability and played a factor in astrocyte elongations.