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Readily3D, manufacturer of volumetric 3D bio-printers, has announced its participation in the European ENLIGHT project.
In collaboration with several research institutes and companies in the region, Readily3D will play its role in the 3D printing of a living model of the human pancreas with the aim of improving drug testing against diabetes. Specifically, the company will engage as the official manufacturer of the project’s bio-printers, tailoring its proprietary non-contact tomographic illumination technology to the particular needs of pancreatic tissue structures.
The ENLIGHT project received a four-year grant totaling € 3.6 million from the Horizon 2020 Innovation Fund and aims to manufacture its first set of functional pancreas models within three years. The models themselves will be printed at UMC Utrecht and EPFL, which were the first to use volumetric printing for biofabrication applications in 2019. ETH Zurich and the University of Naples will supply the cells specialized strains needed to complete the project.
Damien Loterie, CEO of Readily3D, declares: “We are delighted to be part of the ENLIGHT project and to push the boundaries of biofabrication with our partners.
Paving the way for high-speed bioprinting
To reach the three-year goal, ENLIGHT researchers have two hurdles to overcome. The first is the development of the bio-printer itself, which will be based on Readily3D’s existing Tomolite 3D printer. If all goes according to plan, the final product will be able to 3D print living human cell structures at “lightning speed”.
Where conventional 3D printers can take hours to fabricate centimeter-scale structures on a layer-by-layer basis, Readily3D’s volumetric printing technology will be able to achieve this in less than 30 seconds. The speed of the printer would be especially important because the survival rate of living cells decreases dramatically as print times increase.
Paul Delrot, CTO of Readily3D, explains: “With its fast manufacturing speed, low light dose and sterile manufacturing environment, our tomographic bio-printer will open up previously inaccessible applications in biofabrication.”
Once the bioprinter is able to 3D print models of living pancreas, the second hurdle will be adding signaling molecules to the structures, which will determine the behavior of cells under external stimulation. This will essentially recreate the functionality of cells at the level of the human organ, allowing researchers to use the structures as a pancreatic test for diabetes research without resorting to animal testing.
Professor Riccardo Levato, biofabrication researcher at UMC Utrecht and coordinator of ENLIGHT, adds: “With a patient’s cells, practitioners can recreate diseased tissue. Afterwards, a lab test can be done to determine which drug candidate has the greatest effect. This saves patients a long search with unpleasant side effects, saves on treatment costs and leads to the best care available for individual patients. ”
Why focus on diabetes drug research?
According to the researchers, the choice to focus on diabetes and 3D printing of pancreatic tissue was very deliberate. Besides asthma, diabetes is the most common chronic disease in children, introducing a level of social relevance to the project. In addition, despite the continued advances in medicine, the development of new treatments for diabetes (apart from insulin therapy) is still a late area, calling for the urgent need for drug discovery.
Levato, referring to how the process can potentially be extended for other diseases such as cancer, adds, “The pancreas is our ‘proof of principle’. Once we manage to create a live model of the pancreas and test diabetes drugs with it, it will prove the effectiveness of the new bio-printing technique. Then we can use these techniques much more widely. In principle, you can create live models of all types of fabrics with it. “
With similar goals in mind, researchers at the University of Stuttgart and Robert Bosch Hospital recently announced the development of a new 3D printed tissue platform that could replace animal testing in trials. clinics. Supported by 3.8 M € from the German Land of Baden-Württemberg, the scientists are trying to build an ex-vivo tissue model to test the effectiveness of anticancer drugs.
Elsewhere, scientists at Tsinghua University have already 3D bio-printed brain-like tissue structures capable of nourishing neural cells in rats. After several weeks of in vitro care, the team was able to cultivate entire complex neural networks capable of responding to external stimuli, paving the way for the search for new drugs.
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The featured image shows a 3D human villus bio-printed by Readily3D. Photo via Readily3D.
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