Editing Bioreactor (section)

===Bioreactors for specialized tissues===
[[File:Loading bioreactor.jpg|thumb|A bioreactor used to ferment ethanol from corncob waste being loaded with yeast]]
Many cells and tissues, especially mammalian ones, must have a surface or other structural support in order to grow, and agitated environments are often destructive to these cell types and tissues. Higher organisms, being [[Auxotrophy|auxotrophic]], also require highly specialized growth media. This poses a challenge when the goal is to culture larger quantities of cells for therapeutic production purposes, and a significantly different design is needed compared to industrial bioreactors used for growing protein expression systems such as yeast and bacteria.{{citation needed|date=October 2019}}

Many research groups have developed novel bioreactors for growing specialized tissues and cells on a structural scaffold, in attempt to recreate organ-like tissue structures ''in-vitro''. Among these include tissue bioreactors that can grow heart tissue,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bursac |first1=N. |last2=Papadaki |first2=M. |last3=Cohen |first3=R. J. |last4=Schoen |first4=F. J. |last5=Eisenberg |first5=S. R. |last6=Carrier |first6=R. |last7=Vunjak-Novakovic |first7=G. |last8=Freed |first8=L. E. |title=Cardiac muscle tissue engineering: toward an in vitro model for electrophysiological studies |journal=American Journal of Physiology. Heart and Circulatory Physiology |date=1 August 1999 |volume=277 |issue=2 |pages=H433–H444 |doi=10.1152/ajpheart.1999.277.2.h433 |pmid=10444466 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Carrier |first1=Rebecca L. |last2=Papadaki |first2=Maria |last3=Rupnick |first3=Maria |last4=Schoen |first4=Frederick J. |last5=Bursac |first5=Nenad |last6=Langer |first6=Robert |last7=Freed |first7=Lisa E. |last8=Vunjak-Novakovic |first8=Gordana |title=Cardiac tissue engineering: Cell seeding, cultivation parameters, and tissue construct characterization |journal=Biotechnology and Bioengineering |date=5 September 1999 |volume=64 |issue=5 |pages=580–589 |doi=10.1002/(SICI)1097-0290(19990905)64:5<580::AID-BIT8>3.0.CO;2-X |pmid=10404238 }}</ref> skeletal muscle tissue,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Heher |first1=Philipp |last2=Maleiner |first2=Babette |last3=Prüller |first3=Johanna |last4=Teuschl |first4=Andreas Herbert |last5=Kollmitzer |first5=Josef |last6=Monforte |first6=Xavier |last7=Wolbank |first7=Susanne |last8=Redl |first8=Heinz |last9=Rünzler |first9=Dominik |last10=Fuchs |first10=Christiane |title=A novel bioreactor for the generation of highly aligned 3D skeletal muscle-like constructs through orientation of fibrin via application of static strain |journal=Acta Biomaterialia |date=September 2015 |volume=24 |pages=251–265 |doi=10.1016/j.actbio.2015.06.033 |pmid=26141153 }}</ref> ligaments, cancer tissue models, and others. Currently, scaling production of these specialized bioreactors for industrial use remains challenging and is an active area of research.

For more information on artificial tissue culture, see [[tissue engineering]].