Bioengineering sits at the vibrant intersection of biology and engineering, where scientists design new tools to understand life and solve real-world problems. From creating artificial organs to developing smart materials that mimic natural tissues, this field turns complex biological questions into tangible innovations that improve human health and our environment.

At Gist.Science, we track every new preprint in this category directly from bioRxiv. Our team processes each submission to provide both plain-language explanations for curious minds and detailed technical summaries for researchers, ensuring these cutting-edge discoveries are accessible to everyone. Below are the latest papers in bioengineering that have recently appeared on bioRxiv.

📄 bioengineering

Resolving differential vascular graft remodeling using longitudinal multiphoton tracking in a 3D culture platform

This study introduces a 3D organotypic artery-graft culture platform that enables non-destructive, longitudinal multiphoton imaging of tissue remodeling, successfully correlating short-term in vitro responses to specific TGF-beta isoforms and graft designs with long-term in vivo outcomes to facilitate the pre-clinical optimization of vascular grafts.

Maestas, D. R., Murphy, T. R., Martinet, K. M., Moyston, T., Min, L. X., Behrangzade, A., Pemberton, B. J., Joy, J., Ye (…)2026-03-19
📄 bioengineering

Geometry-Encoded Microtrenches Stabilize Endothelium on High Shear Biomaterial Surfaces

This study demonstrates that engineering mesoscale microtrenches on cardiovascular biomaterials stabilizes endothelial monolayers under extreme shear by creating protective flow gradients that promote mechanoadaptation, enhance nitric oxide production, and suppress inflammatory activation, thereby offering a material-agnostic strategy to improve the hemocompatibility of high-shear implants.

Ibrahim, A. M., Zeng, G., Stelick, S. J., Antaki, J. F., Butcher, J. T.2026-03-19
📄 bioengineering

Development of a continuous bioreactor to maintain stable nasal microbiomes from swab specimens and synthetic communities

This study demonstrates that a continuous bioreactor, optimized for specific environmental conditions and inoculated with either nasal swab specimens or synthetic microbial communities, can maintain stable, reproducible nasal microbiomes for over a month, providing a robust model for investigating nasal ecology and developing targeted *Staphylococcus aureus* decolonization strategies.

Ham, S., Navarro-Diaz, M., Camus, L., Lucas, T. N., Stincone, P., Heilbronner, S., Link, H., Petras, D., Huson, D., Ange (…)2026-03-18
📄 bioengineering

Immune reprogramming of 3D tumor models via optoporation-mediatedtargeted gene delivery to macrophages

This study presents a gold nanoparticle-assisted optoporation technique that enables spatially selective gene delivery to tumor-associated macrophages within 3D pancreatic cancer spheroids, successfully reprogramming them to an anti-tumorigenic state and modulating the tumor microenvironment.

Poljak, I., Hussein, I. N., Gu, C., Giustarini, G., Teng, X., Toyama, Y., Chiappini, C., Adriani, G.2026-03-18
📄 bioengineering

Ventricular Forebrain Organoids Reproduce Macroscale Geometry of the Developing Telencephalon

This paper introduces a novel method for generating ventral and dorsal forebrain organoids that accurately recapitulate the macroscale geometry and tissue architecture of the developing telencephalon by utilizing an endothelial cell growth medium to expand the neuroepithelium and embedding the organoids in miniature collagen spheres to stabilize their structure and support neurovascular development.

Justin, A. W., Anderson, A., Guglielmi, L., Lancaster, M. A.2026-03-18
📄 bioengineering

Exploration of Orally Disintegrating Tablet for Sublingual Vaccination against Mucosal Bacterial Infection

This study demonstrates that a novel sublingual, orally disintegrating tablet vaccine (Capot) utilizing bacterial extracellular vesicles encapsulated in a calcium phosphate nanoshell effectively induces durable salivary sIgA immunity and provides robust protection against periodontitis in mice and non-human primates without causing inflammation.

Liu, Y., Cai, Q., Hu, X., Liu, X., Guo, P., Zhang, Y., Liu, H., Wang, W., Zheng, D., Pan, C., Guo, L., Yu, X., Zhang, Q. (…)2026-03-17
📄 bioengineering

The effect of microstructural variations in tendon and ligament on diffusion tensor MRI

This study utilizes simulations of SHG-informed fiber networks to demonstrate that while collagen fiber crimp does not influence diffusion tensor MRI metrics, fiber dispersion significantly alters axial and radial diffusivity as well as fractional anisotropy, thereby clarifying the relationship between microstructural variations and DTI measurements in tendons and ligaments.

Focht, M. D. K., Borole, A., Moghaddam, A. O., Wagoner Johnson, A. J., Pineda Guzman, R. A., Damon, B. M., Naughton, N. (…)2026-03-16
📄 bioengineering

Mechanistic interpretation of biological tissue growth experiments with a computational model

This paper presents a computational model that simulates the interplay between geometry, mechanics, and stochasticity in tissue growth to enable the quantitative analysis of morphology and the inference of dynamic growth mechanisms from static experimental data, demonstrated through applications in 3D-printed scaffolds and cortical bone formation.

Kuba, S., Simpson, M. J., Buenzli, P. R.2026-03-16
📄 bioengineering

HipSAFE: automating hip fracture detection on ultrasound imaging using deep learning

This preclinical study demonstrates that HipSAFE, a deep learning tool utilizing EfficientNet-Lite0 to analyze ultrasound images captured by non-expert operators, achieves diagnostic accuracy comparable to or exceeding that of radiologists for detecting hip fractures, offering a promising solution for improved triaging in rural and resource-constrained settings.

Yee, N. J., Soenjaya, Y., Kates Rose, N., Atinga, A., Demore, C., Halai, M., Whyne, C., Hardisty, M.2026-03-16
📄 bioengineering

Programming Biomolecular Interactions with All-Atom Generative Model

The paper introduces AnewOmni, a unified all-atom generative framework trained on over 5 million biomolecular complexes that utilizes programmable graph prompts to successfully design functional small molecules, peptides, and nanobodies across diverse molecular modalities, thereby establishing a foundation for general molecular reasoning in regimes where data and intuition are limited.

Kong, X., Chen, J., Zhang, Z., Li, G., Zhu, Q., Wei, L., Li, M., Shi, Y., Dai, W., Zhang, Z., Tan, W., Jiao, R., Wang, X (…)2026-03-15