Leen Kawas Highlights 3D Bioprinting’s Significance in the Medical and Healthcare Sectors — TIME BUSINESS NEWS

In the evolving 3D printing technology arena, innovative companies continue to print a wide variety of objects. Aerospace parts, clothing, food, toys, and even houses are real-world examples of items printed from diverse composites. Many technologically savvy consumers also own personal-sized 3D printers.

In 1988, a quantum technological leap enabled an inkjet printer to print living cells, ushering in the 3D bioprinting era. Today, biotech firms continue to execute promising 3D bioprinting advancements for medical and healthcare applications. Leen Kawas, Ph. D. highlighted this game-changing technology. Kawas also discussed 3D bioprinting’s benefits, challenges, and a key emerging trend.

Leen Kawas’ Multifaceted Biotechnology Expertise

Leen Kawas is Propel Bio Partners’ Managing General Partner. Based in Los Angeles, this biotech-focused venture capital firm provides start-up and early-stage companies with financial, technical, and operational support.

Prior to her Propel Bio Partners role, Leen Kawas excelled as Athira’s Chief Executive Officer (or CEO). While in this leadership position, she successfully managed multiple drug development cycles. Together, these experiences enabled Leen Kawas to develop expertise in diverse biotechnology disciplines.

The 3D Bioprinting Concept

At its heart, 3D bioprinting is an additive manufacturing operation that integrates a specialty bioprinter and bioink. Before launching the printing sequence, researchers should ensure that the bioprinter and bioink are compatible.

3D Bioprinter Snapshot

Unlike a conventional 3D printer, a 3D bioprinter is designed to accept living cell-containing material while minimizing potential damage to it. A bioprinter can be inkjet-sourced, extrusion-based, or laser-assisted. Like conventional printers, researchers select a bioprinter based on cost along with other determining factors. Bioprinter selection criteria include resolution, cell density, and cell viability.

Bioink Snapshot

Rather than using conventional ink, 3D bioprinting utilizes a blend of bioinks, biomaterials, and living cells. Each research process requires a specially formulated bioink, as the bioink’s density can impact cell density and cell viability.

How 3D Bioprinting Works

Like conventional 3D printing, 3D bioprinting uses a digital blueprint as a guide. Here, medical images (such as a CT scan or MRI) provide the 3D bioprinter with parameters and instructions.

To begin a bioprinting task, the sophisticated bioprinter precisely deposits the selected bioink in a certain structure. As the printing process continues, developing cell structures form layers that mimic natural tissues’ structure and mechanics. At the process’ conclusion, the new 3D tissue model can resemble human muscle, cartilage, and even (potentially) human organs.

Bioprinting’s Role in Tissue Engineering

In May 2023, theMayo Clinic News Network highlighted the work of Kevin Dicker, Ph. D. A recognized bioprinting expert, Dr. Dicker is a process development scientist for the Arizona-based Center for Regenerative Biotherapeutics. He offered perspectives on bioprinting’s role in the emerging tissue engineering field.

“3D bioprinters use biocompatible materials containing living cells to print three-dimensional structures of tissue that could be used to improve human health…You can formulate a bioink composed of gelatin-like materials that can be printed into a desired shape. In addition, we can encapsulate living cells into that gelatin-like bioink.

“This type of tissue engineering is an emerging technology in regenerative medicine that has the potential to transform laboratory research and clinical practice by bioengineering replacements for damaged or diseased tissue,” Dr. Dicker remarked. For perspective, his process development team is working toward standard operating guidelines for biomanufacturing tissues intended for early-stage clinical trials.

Real-World Bioprinting Benefits and Challenges

As biotechs continue to pursue potential bioprinting applications, researchers recognize this emerging technology’s benefits. First, because bioprinting mimics a tissue’s structure, the bioprinted item is more likely to be biocompatible with a specific patient’s cells and tissues.

Bioprinting also enables automation (and consistency) in the completion of sophisticated processes. Finally, bioprinting enables an enhanced knowledge of diverse disease mechanics. In turn, this enables researchers and physicians to minimize trial and error associated with disease diagnosis and treatment.

Current Bioprinting Applications

Leen Kawas is well-versed in bioprinting technology development. She highlighted three significant bioprinting applications.

Cancer Research Enhancements

To better comprehend cancer’s genesis and disease timeline, improved tumor modeling is needed. In December 2022, the National Center for Biotechnology Information published an article on 3D bioprinting and its multiple medical applications. Specifically, 3D bioprinting can provide cancer researchers with high-quality cancer tissue models. This enables researchers to accelerate their understanding of the cancer disease process.

Early-Stage Drug Development

Today, a bioprinted tissue model can enable researchers to more quickly assess a drug candidate’s efficacy. This can help eliminate animal testing and decrease research time. In fact, 3D bioprinting enables more timely outcomes in every drug development phase. This often results in reduced overall testing costs.

Streamlined Wound Healing

Bioprinting can help to streamline the often-challenging wound healing process. To illustrate, technicians can fabricate bioprinted bone grafts and skin grafts that will ideally be compatible with a patient’s native tissues.

Challenges to Bioprinting Adoption

Although bioprinting can bring significant benefits, this expanding technology does have several downsides. Leen Kawas discussed three areas of concern.

Like other emerging technologies, bioprinting carries a hefty price tag. Bioprinting projects also require considerable energy consumption, which directly conflicts with biotechs’ growing focus on sustainability.

Next, bioprinting is a complex undertaking that requires successful management of several variables. In particular, maintaining a hospitable cellular environment can be a challenge.

Finally, some stakeholders may object to bioprinting based on ethical concerns. This could slow the pace of advancements in this rapidly progressing field.

Researchers Make Strides Toward Bioprinted Organs

Patients who need an organ transplant must often wait years to get a donor match. Today, researchers continue to work toward an ambitious goal: bioprinting an entire human organ. Achieving this goal could mean a transplant surgeon could request a new organ that integrates a patient’s stem cells or other cells as a foundation. Over time, this advancement could greatly reduce (or eliminate) the need for long donor lists.

Today, bioprinted functional bladders have been successfully transplanted into human patients. Each bladder integrates bioprinted tissue from the patient’s own cells. Dr. Dicker offered a bigger-picture perspective on this rapidly advancing technology.

“The ultimate goal is to someday be able to print organs and tissue on demand. However, we aren’t quite there yet. We hope to advance this technology as a solution to the global shortage of donor organs. If we are able to bioprint functional kidneys, for example, that would be a huge relief on the healthcare system,” Dr. Dicker concluded.

A Continued Focus on Biotechs’ Contributions

As bioprinting advancements continue, potential medical and healthcare applications continue to emerge. Leen Kawas expressed optimism that biotechs’ contributions would remain at the forefron t of this rapidly growing industry.

Originally published at https://timebusinessnews.com on October 7, 2024.