---
title: "Carnegie Mellon-led team receives multi-million dollar award for 3D bioprinted liver project"
url: https://www.voxelmatters.com/carnegie-mellon-led-team-receives-multi-million-dollar-award-for-3d-bioprinted-liver-project/
date: 2026-01-14
modified: 2026-01-13
lang: en
author: "Joseph Caron-Dawe"
description: "ARPA-H, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, has awarded a Carnegie Mellon-led team financial backing that could reach up to $28.5 million as part of a project dedicated to..."
categories:
  - "Medical AM"
  - "Medical Research"
  - "Regenerative Medicine"
  - "Research & Education"
tags:
  - "future"
image: https://www.voxelmatters.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/carnegie-640x360.png
word_count: 418
---

# Carnegie Mellon-led team receives multi-million dollar award for 3D bioprinted liver project

ARPA-H, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, has awarded a Carnegie Mellon-led team financial backing that could reach up to $28.5 million as part of a project dedicated to developing a functional, 3D bioprinted liver for patients with acute liver failure.

The award is part of ARPA-H’s Personalized Regenerative Immunocompetent Nanotechnology Tissue (PRINT) program, and the project in question seeks to 3D print temporary liver tissue that lasts for between two to four weeks – enough time to support a patient's own liver generation and bypass the need for a whole-organ transplant. The project could bring about a [significant advance in tissue engineering](https://www.voxelmatters.com/ai-and-bioprinting-accelerate-tissue-engineering/).

One of the overarching goals of the project – named LIVE (Liver Immunocompetent Volumetric Engineering) – is to alleviate growing pressure in the US around organ transplant shortages. Close to 100,000 organ transplants are performed in the country each year, but as many patients remain on waiting lists.

The team is a collection of experts across a range of disciplines and from a variety of international institutions. The project will use [Carnegie Mellon’s FRESH 3D bioprinting and 3D ice platforms](https://www.voxelmatters.com/researchers-advance-vascularized-tissue-with-fresh-bioprinting/) to produce biologic livers composed entirely of human cells and structural proteins, such as collagen. [The company FluidForm is offering the technology for commercial applications.](https://www.voxelmatters.com/fluidform-has-signed-an-agreement-to-develop-3d-bioprinting-solutions/)

![](https://www.voxelmatters.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Low-Res_0112-em-arpa-h-340x302.jpg)FRESH 3D bioprinted perfusable liver tissue inside of a bioreactor

Through the use of hypoimmune cells engineered to be universal donors, the team will aim to make the treatment available to anyone without the need for immunosuppressing medication, which can cause complications, secondary organ damage and are often toxic.

The team hopes to have the bioengineered liver ready for preclinical testing at adult scale within five years, and longer-term ambitions include applying the process to other organs.

“The liver is just the first application, with the plan to expand to the heart, pancreas, and other organs,” said Adam Feinberg, professor of biomedical engineering at Carnegie Mellon and principal investigator. “This innovation would fundamentally change healthcare as we know it, because most people suffer at some point from end-stage organ failure.

“The technologies and capabilities we develop will have impact beyond the liver, enabling additional efforts to build human tissue and organs to treat congenital heart defects, heart disease, blindness, and Type I diabetes.”

The project is the latest step in an exciting and continued quest in the medical field to develop a 3D printed liver. [The Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM) recently tested tissue constructs ](https://www.voxelmatters.com/wfirm-to-test-3d-bioprinted-liver-tissue-onboard-the-iss/)[aboard the ](https://www.voxelmatters.com/wfirm-to-test-3d-bioprinted-liver-tissue-onboard-the-iss/)International Space Station to assess their response in microgravity.