October 12th,
https://www.the-newshub.com/science/printing-human-tissue-is-just-the-beginning-for-biobots?utm_source=FundersClub%20Newsletter&utm_campaign=121e14c307-FundersClub_Weekly_Newsletter_October_22_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_cfd26617fc-121e14c307-49941097
This Philadelphia-based startup is making waves with its 3D Bioprinter, which might one day be able to print extremely complex structures – like entire organs
With the launch of their first commercial 3D printer in the market, Philadelphia-based startup Biobots is making it possible to literally print human tissue. The Biobot 1 is an affordable machine – $10,000 – and is currently being used in over 50 labs around the world. The endgame is the stuff of science fiction books: being able to print complex structures such as functioning, live organs, and tissue that will forever end the need to test on animals and even humans.
"We produce the technologies that allow people to conduct their research and to investigate applications with it, either in pre-clinical settings, testing drugs, or studying various functional ailments within the human body," marketing director Connor McKnight tells me. "The 3 dimensional model allows them to study tissue structures that were previously not feasible to replicate in a lab. We’re enabling the wider distribution of this technology, making it more accessible, with an academically feasible price."
Biobots has contacted the FDA (U.S.Food and Drug Administration), which demonstrated some interest in the technology, but that's not the startup's job; they manufacture the equipment and bioinks, so they have more of an advocacy role with regulators. Their goal is to support as many innovative applications in the healthcare and pharmaceutical spaces as possible. "So while we sit outside of the regulatory environment in a direct sense in that what we are designing a research and manufacturing platform, rather than the patient devices themselves, we certainly have a place in those conversations as advocates for the technology," McKnights explains. "We’re trying to talk to regulatory agencies and help advance this field and its clinical acceptance." They are now working with relevant groups in the medical community to facilitate the broader adoption of the technology. Biobots believe it can "truly revolutionize the healthcare space through personalized disease treatments never before possible, and a faster path to market for new drugs with better testing models."
How it works
Through a process of extrusion, the BioBot 1 uses visible blue light to cure biomaterials rapidly without damaging cells. It features two heated extruder heads, and the cartridge houses two disposable BD syringes, to make switching between materials quick and easy. Users can choose any bioink that can be extruded from a syringe. The company offers their own material, labs can make them in-house and they also work with bio-materials suppliers. "There are dozens of materials people have printed with, in addition to the ones we sell directly on the site," McKnight shares. Their matrix material is a Gelatin Methacrylate-based BioGel composed of denatured collagen, that is engineered to cross-link when combined with GelKey. Support materials are BioPCL (PCL based thermoplastic) and PluroGel (Pluronic F127), and the curing material is BioKey, designed to cross link photocurable hydrogels and bioinks with cells.
During the beta period, the startup partnered with two institutions in Sweden (Karolinska Institutet and Linkopings Universitet) and one in Poland (Warsaw University of Technology) to refine the design and feature set for the BioBot. "We are currently in conversations with top tissue engineering and biomedical research institutions throughout the UK and Europe for BioBot 1 since its release," he adds. The Biobot 1 was commercially launched earlier in September, during the Termis conference (Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society), in Boston. Now they're going into the next phase of partnerships.