Materials have been widely used in many Tissue Engineering (TE) solutions, as a structural support for adherent cells and as a vehicle to provide relevant biochemical and biophysical signals to control cell behavior. Different types of natural-based macromolecular materials have been proposed to prepare scaffolds for TE. We have been proposing the use of human-derived proteins that, upon chemical modification, could be used to generate adequate microenvironments to interact adequately with cells. We have selected two sources of such materials: (i) platelet lysates, containing mostly globular proteins including relevant growth factors with highly regenerative potential; and (ii) proteins from placenta, composed of fibrical proteins such as collagens and other compoents of the extra-cellular matrix. Due to their hydrophilic nature and richness in chemically active groups, these proteins can be chemical modified to generate materials with new or improved properties, while maintaining the biochemical features of human tissues. For example, we were able to produce photocrosslinkable systems able to generate hydrogels with tunable mechanical properties, including strategies generating non-covalent crosslinkings, giving rise to self-healing and dynamic supramolecular systems.

We demonstrated the possibility of processing these human-derived biomaterials into different forms, including injectable/bioprintable systems, microparticles, porous sponges, with potential to be used in different biomedical applications, including tissue engineering / regenerative medicine, cell carriers for cell expansion, 3D disease models or organ-on-a-chip.