Dr. Dalia Dranseikė

Designing biomaterials for a regenerative future

I am a materials scientist and process engineer working at the interface of biofabrication, living materials, and sustainability. I design soft matter systems that grow, adapt, and perform.

Current projects:

• Dafne's Skin (with MAEID @Milan Triennale 2025)

• Picoplanctonics (with Living Room Collective @Venice Architecture Biennale 2025)

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© Cayce Pollard. All rights reserved.

Biofabrication

I use biofabrication techniques that match the scale, material, and function of each biological system.
This includes extrusion, light-based methods, and hybrid approaches tailored to different contexts.
Whether we're printing cellular microenvironments or forming large-scale prototypes, the process is always adapted.
I focus on creating materials that support tissue growth, guide biological behaviors, or provide environments for microorganisms.
Each project integrates structure and function to meet the specific needs of the system.

Living materials

Living materials incorporate active cells—such as stem cells that differentiate or photosynthetic cells that sequester CO₂—within soft structures.
These systems can grow, adapt to their environment, and respond to various stimuli.
I specialize in hydrogel design and encapsulation platforms that maintain cell viability and support biological functions.
My work spans applications from tissue engineering to photosynthetic living materials.
I collaborate with clinicians, architects, and engineers to explore how these materials can be applied in real-world settings. I am currently developing living materials as a Postdoctoral researcher at Macromolecular Engineering Lab, ETH Zurich.

Press

My work, developed together with collaborators, has been featured in scientific journals, exploring topics from biomaterial design and biofabrication techniques to the development of living materials.
Selected papers:
- Dual carbon sequestration with photosynthetic living materials. Dranseike & Cui et al. Nature communications (2025)
- Designed modular protein hydrogels for biofabrication. Dranseike et al. Acta Biomaterialia (2024)
- Hierarchical biomaterials via photopatterning-enhanced direct ink writing. Guzzi et al. Biofabrication (2021)

For a complete list of my publications, visit here

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You can also explore my PhD thesis, Advancing Biofabrication for Tissue Engineering and Living Materials here:

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