Precision processing of various liquids while maintaining their purity holds immense potential for many applications. However, liquids tend to leave residues that contaminate handling tools and compromise volumetric precision, necessitating contactless strategies to prevent liquid loss. Biological and chemical samples carried by fluids can be sensitive to physical stimuli, demanding mild but effective means to preserve integrity. Here, we report a sound-controlled fluidic processor for complete and well-controlled microfluidic functions, including moving, merging, mixing, and cleaving, in contactless and harmless manners. The processor generates an acoustophoretic force field that serves as a versatile toolbox for manipulating droplets with surface tension from 17.9 to 72 millinewtons per meter and volume from 1 nanoliter to 3 milliliters, offering a wealth of operations crucial to fundamental biomedical and chemical practices.

Organoids as three-dimension (3D) cellular organizations partially mimic the physiological functions and micro-architecture of native tissues and organs, holding great potential for clinical applications. Advances in the identification of essential factors including physical cues and biochemical signals for controlling organoid development have contributed to the success of growing liver organoids from liver tissue and stem/progenitor cells. However, to recapitulate the physiological properties and the architecture of a native liver, one has to generate liver organoids that contain all the major liver cell types in correct proportions and relative 3D locations as found in a native liver. Recent advances in stem-cell-, biomaterial- and engineering-based approaches have been incorporated into conventional organoid culture methods to facilitate the development of a more sophisticated liver organoid culture resembling a near to native mini-liver in a dish. However, a comprehensive review on the recent advancement in the bioengineering liver organoid is still lacking. Here, we review the current liver organoid systems, focusing on the construction of the liver organoid system with various cell sources, the roles of growth factors for engineering liver organoids, as well as the recent advances in the bioengineering liver organoid disease models and their biomedical applications.

The blockage and absence of bile ducts lead to liver defects, highlighting the urgent need for effective regenerative solutions. Tissue engineering has emerged as an interdisciplinary solution for repairing and regenerating damaged bile duct tissue. However, challenges such as achieving good organoid viability and morphological remodeling within scaffolds remain. In this study, surface-modified biodegradable shape memory (SMP) scaffolds were designed and fabricated to construct cell-laden 3D bile duct tubes using both human and mouse liver derived cholangiocyte organoids as cell sources. The SMP scaffolds demonstrate superb biocompatibility and good shape memory properties, which support organoid attachment and integration, enhancing cholangiocytes proliferation and monolayer formation. Our cell-laden SMP scaffolds facilitated the in vitro generation of bile duct structures, addressing key challenges in scaffold design for duct regeneration. This innovative approach opens new avenues for engineering smart scaffolds for bile duct repair and regenerative medicine.