Regenerating Organs by Design

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When we talk about biodesign, the conversation often leans towards materials: mycelium panels, bacterial cellulose textiles, algae-based pigments. But biodesign also extends deep inside the body, where design challenges involve not only form and function but life itself. In regenerative medicine, biofabrication is still a relatively unexplored field compared to other biotechnologies such as synthetic biology with bacteria, where the landscape is already more developed.

One Colombian biologist’s journey illustrates this intersection of emerging regenerative tools and design thinking. Estefanía Ávila Jiménez’s fields of work has moved from ornithology to phytopathology, environmental microbiology, and finally to tissue engineering, with a special focus on kidney regeneration.

Along the way, she has integrated experimental biology with computational modelling, aiming to understand—and one day design—new, functional organs.

Designing for Life, at the Cellular Scale

At Bioldes Lab, she works on the interface between vasculature, kidney tissue, and the extracellular matrix; a space familiar to architects of tissue, but one that’s far harder to control than any building material.

Her toolkit includes:

• Reverse genetics (in situ hybridisation, qRT-PCR) to map gene expression.

• Mutant models to remove specific proteins and study their functional roles.

• Predictive machine learning models built on identified regeneration genes.

The aim: To reveal the molecular blueprints guiding regeneration, so they can be leveraged in designing functional tissues. For readers interested in the science behind regeneration, see her PLOS One article.

Personal Motivation, Systemic Thinking

Her motivation is personal: her father’s IgA Nephropathy has long driven her to imagine a world where replacement organs could be designed, grown, and integrated into the body. The kidney, with its millions of precisely arranged filtering units, is a masterclass in natural engineering. Replicating it means thinking like both a biologist and a designer, balancing complexity with manufacturability.

The Biggest Challenge: Stochasticity as a Design Constraint

Unlike working with predictable building materials, cells operate with stochasticity: unpredictable timing and spatial activation of gene networks. Designing for such uncertainty requires new tools.

Biodesign in Latin America: Untapped Potential

In Latin America, she predicts strong growth in agri-tech, climate-tech, and nature-based biodesign solutions. Colombia’s biodiversity is unmatched per square metre, making it a natural hub for innovation. Yet biomedical biofabrication lags due to underdeveloped infrastructure, limited partnerships, and slow adoption of cutting-edge tools. Addressing these gaps could unlock entirely new design economies.

Case Studies in Interdisciplinary Collaboration

She cites Colombian projects that embody design-led biology:

• E.dye – synthetic biology to produce colourfast natural pigments.

• Spora Studio – mycelium-grown materials for design applications.

• Nano Freeze – bio-preservation of food via bacterial proteins.

• Phases Lab – a project she co-created that combines regenerative biology with AI-driven data science. The initiative arose directly from her thesis work. Now, the startup belongs entirely to her partner, Juan Pablo Ebrath, who founded it in San Francisco and recently won the prestigious Peter Thiel Fellowship to continue advancing its mission.

These projects succeed because they unite designers, engineers, artists, anthropologists, and computational scientists in the same creative process.

She also credits key collaborators in her scientific journey: Lucia Uribe, who initiated the renal regeneration line; Zayra Garavito, director of Bioldes Lab; and Juan Pablo Ebrath, who shared the belief that regenerating an organ is possible and continues to work toward that goal.

Advice for Biodesign Students and Practitioners

• Diversify to generate new possibilities, but dose your attention so you can achieve both depth and decisive action.

• Treat change as part of the design process—shifting disciplines can lead to new creative insights.

• Surround yourself with people who inspire bold ideas and have the skills to realise them.

• Think in systems: materials, environment, biology, and computation are part of the same design problem.

Her own recent pivot into STEM education, sustainable development, and renewable energy reflects this flexibility; proof that in biodesign, careers, like living systems, are always evolving. Her next goal is to found her own startup in renewable energies, particularly in biofuels for aviation.

She is formulating a project to design a liquid fuel of biological origin that meets aircraft performance requirements without generating greenhouse gases or other toxic molecules. The venture could take shape in London or Switzerland, depending on which ecosystem proves most favourable.

She is also active in science communication with a gender perspective through Mujeres Creando Conciencia and shares her professional updates on LinkedIn.

Why it matters for biodesign

This is a case study in how emerging regenerative medicine techniques, even in less-explored areas like biofabrication, demand the same interdisciplinary fluency we celebrate in material biodesign. It’s also a reminder that regenerative medicine and biodesign share the same core challenge; how to design with life, in all its complexity and unpredictability.

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