3D-Druck News, Bioprinter / Biodrucker 3D Printing May Revolutionize Drug R&D
Organovo Offers Design Options for Modeling Diverse Tissue Types
Differences between animal models and human tissues have contributed to approximately one dozen failures of late-stage drugs in 2012 alone. Organovo is remedying the situation with an innovative tissue development technology that produces fully functional human tissue for research and therapeutic applications.
“We can create a number of tissues,” notes Keith Murphy, president and CEO. “Liver, cancer, and kidney tissues are highest on our list.” Created using 3D printing, the resulting tissue models have greater predicative capacity and are available in unlimited quantities for multiple studies, thus enabling drug candidates to be tested on functional human tissue before entering clinical trials.
To develop tissue, “We create a bio-ink from cell aggregates and locate them precisely, using the Organovo NovoGen Bioprinter™. These are building blocks,” Murphy says. They are composed of approximately 1,000 cells that maintain tissue-specific geometries. These blocks fuse together naturally and build collagen, creating small pieces of tissue that perform like natural tissue.
(…weiter auf genengnews.com)
