Dr. Paulina Núñez Bernal is a postdoctoral researcher in biofabrication at Utrecht University and the University Medical Center Utrecht. Her research focuses on advanced 3D bioprinting, dynamic biomaterials, and human-relevant in vitro models for tissue engineering, disease modelling, and drug testing. She is particularly interested in developmentally instructive biofabrication: creating cell-instructive platforms that move beyond static structural mimicry toward systems that actively guide tissue organization and function.

Her work combines volumetric bioprinting, smart hydrogels, organoids, iPSC-derived cells, and spatiotemporal control of biochemical and mechanical cues to develop more predictive in vitro models. A growing focus of her research is liver biofabrication and the development of alternatives to animal testing, with the long-term aim of building platforms that can capture tissue-level functions relevant to disease modelling and preclinical research.

Alongside her research, Paulina coordinates the international Master’s programme in Biofabrication and the online course Fundamentals of Biofabrication at Utrecht University, and supervises MSc and PhD research projects.