A mechanical engineer with 25 years professional experience, Paul Marshall has been involved in the Life Science sector for the last 10. He founded Rapid Fluidics in 2020 to provide a genuine rapid-protoype service to the microfluidics sector, based on the development of the process to meet the unmet need that he had experienced. Paul was a speaker at our recent 3D Printing and Microfluidics event.

When was the first encounter you had with 3D printing?

Paul: Amazingly, it was only when we started looking into alternative ways to quickly produce prototype microfluidic parts. The realization that we could easily design and go through iterative development cycles quickly was mind-blowing! 

What inspired you to embark on your journey in 3D printing?

Paul: I made the decision several years ago to move my mechanical engineering career into the life-science sector – after 15 years of designing, analysing, and building machinery, I wanted to have a more positive impact on society. This presented an opportunity to enhance the 3D printing process to meet both needs.

Who inspired you the most along this journey ?

Paul: Mark Gilligan of Blacksheep Power and Keith Bodycomb, recently retired global industry manager of medical & life science for SMC.

Mark has an encyclopedic knowledge of the microfluidic industry, having been involved since its inception. Combine this with a very astute business sense and it means that his support for the work we’re doing clearly demonstrates how we are fulfilling an unmet need. Keith is an advocate for 3D printing in the lab-automation and fluid-handling sectors.  His opinion of the advantages provided over traditional manufacturing methods in both geometry and speed demonstrates the huge potential in this market.

What motivates you the most for your work? 

Paul: The sheer enormous potential! When you look at both the growing demand for microfluidic advancement, and the growth and improvement of the 3d-printing industry, I find the fact that we’ve combined them and have the ability to provide quality design and manufacturing services for our customers so they can get their products to market quicker, and ultimately help their end-customers to help patients is just thrilling

What is/are the biggest obstacle(s) in your line of work? If you have conquered them, what were your solutions? 

Paul: Other than setting up a new business amid the COVID-19 lockdown, the biggest challenge has probably been convincing people that out-sourced 3D-printed microfluidics makes sense. There is the attitude that “it’s just a 3D printer, I’ll do it myself”. But because we’ve got over a large number of technical challenges, and have the resources and experience to develop new solutions rapidly, it soon becomes apparent at all levels in our customers’ business that we can help them be more efficient.

What do you think is (are) the biggest challenge(s) in 3D Printing? What do you think the potential solution(s) is (are)?

Paul: Probably the available materials, especially when developing products which will be injection moulded in thermoplastics. We can use specific resins to represent the required properties, or we can simply recommend utilising the same materials at production quantities, too. The other aspect to consider is environmental sustainability. Ultimately, we’re creating single-use plastic parts. This is partially driven by our customers’ need for biocompatibility and contamination prevention, but I’d love to see more environmentally friendly materials being developed. Or, vice versa, different printing processes developed for better materials

If a higher being grants you three wishes, what would they be? 

Paul: I’ve always said we should put all our resources into developing a time machine first, then we’d have the time to build everything else! So, I’d have to ask for the ability to stop time so we can have a chance to catch our breath and produce parts even quicker.

A global single market would be handy. I’ve had a lot of help from the UK Dept of International Trade, but overcoming export rules and regulations is a major challenge. And let’s not talk about the effect of Brexit.

Lastly, a calendar to ensure that all the trade shows and conferences I’d like to attend don’t clash.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Rapid Fluidics (@rapidfluidics)

What advice would you give to a bright, driven college student in the “real world”? What bad advice have you heard that they should ignore?

Paul: Entrepreneurship is fantastic, but follow the mantra “know your market”. Get a few years’ industry experience, work in a few companies, get a customer-facing role, and always be looking for an opportunity to be unique.

Bad advice? “Fake it until you make it”. No, no. NO! Truth will be revealed.

What’s your favorite book you read this year and why? Alternatively, what’s your favorite book of all time that you’ve read and why?

Paul: This year, I’ve mainly been reading trash to help me switch my mind off at night. All-time favourite is possibly The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson, because of the fun I had reading it to my boys when they were small.

Related Links:

Interview with Natan Barros: 3D Bioprinting and Microfluidics
Interview with Soon Seng Ng: Bioprinting for Therapy

Interview with Taciana Pereira, 3D Bioprinting and Allevi

Bioprinting Vasculatures (On-Demand)

Interview: Professor Adam Feinberg, Carnegie Mellon University, CTO and co-founder FluidForm

3D Printing and Microfluidics (On Demand)

Guide: 3D Printing For Cancer Care

Interview with Elliot McAllister: 3D Printing Microfluidics

The post Interview with Paul Marshall: Shaping The Future with Microfluidics appeared first on 3DHeals.

In 2024, we interviewed dozens of founders, scientists, and innovators in medical 3D printing. During these interviews, we asked them what kind of challenges were specific to the industry they were facing and what potential solutions could be. While these are complex problems to solve, they also showed us where future opportunities lie and where the next generation of hardware, software, materials, and talents could be found. We have published a few selected excerpts from these interviews, but you can also follow the link and read their full interview directly.

Medical 3D Printing

“The biggest challenges are:

Scalability and Cost: 

Scaling up production and reducing costs for 3D printed products, especially in healthcare applications, is a significant challenge. Making these technologies more accessible requires overcoming economic barriers and obtaining for patient outcome data. 
Potential Solution: Participation in the ACR-RSNA 3D Printing Registry, research into cost-effective materials and printing processes, and advancements in automation and optimization of production workflows can contribute to scalability and cost reduction. Public-private partnerships and strategic investments can also promote progress in this area.

Regulatory and Ethical Concerns: 

The regulatory landscape for 3D printing, particularly in the medical field, is continually evolving. Ensuring the safety and efficacy of 3D-printed products is a complex challenge.
Potential Solution: Establishing clear regulatory frameworks, ethical guidelines, and standards for 3D printing technologies can help navigate these challenges. Collaboration between regulatory bodies, industry stakeholders, and ethicists is crucial to developing comprehensive and responsible regulations.

Material Limitations: 

The range of materials available for 3D printing is currently limited. Finding suitable biocompatible materials that mimic the complexity and functionality of biological tissues remains a challenge.
Potential Solution: Ongoing research and development of innovative material compositions can expand the capabilities of 3D printing and bioprinting. Collaboration between materials scientists, biologists, and engineers is essential for progress.”

–Dr. Yu-Hui Huang, Radiologist

“One of the biggest challenges in 3D printing for us is meeting short turnaround times for
patients who have surgery within days of their scan because they’re from out of town.
Compounding on that challenge is that while getting imaging done in their
hometown may make sense, the quality may not meet our standards. The next best
option is optimizing the imaging ordering workflow so that any 3D print needed for surgery in
less than a week is flagged as STAT.”

–Chris LeCastillo, Innovations Manager of the Stanford 3D and Quantitative Imaging Laboratory

Design/Software

“There are so many open challenges in this space, so I’ll speak to the familiar—lattices and generative design. There are a number of CAD tools available now that offer amazing capabilities for designing with complex and smart geometries. The challenge now is often creating the most appropriate and effective means to create them additively. Each type of printing carries with it its own set of “best approaches” for setting up designs, types and properties of printed materials that can be printed, and overall pros and cons of use. The same geometry printed on different types of printers will have vastly different results. Some designs may not even be printable on particular machines. Our team agrees that much research needs yet to be done to decide what kinds of geometries, or design alterations to geometries, are best to print on what type of printer and with what type of settings. I think there will be no shortage of jobs for researchers in this area over the next few years. “

—Jade Myers , Researcher/Faculty, RIT

“As everyone knows, there are plenty of challenges in 3D printing and bio-printing. A focus for me, of course, is on the mathematical and geometric challenges. At Metafold we’ve seen this come in two flavours:

1. You have data, and you need shapes.
   Usually, this starts with a performance target—for example, optimized structures for the osseointegration of an orthopedic implant. Your chosen printing method imposes certain design constraints (overhangs, supports, etc.). Finally, there is some physics that you care about—mechanical loading and fluid flow for our example. The question is: What SHAPE will satisfy all these requirements (targets, constraints, physics)?
   This is not an easy problem, and the answer is geometry.
2. You have shapes, and you want data.
   The other flavour begins with geometry, and asks for insight about the shape. For example, if you hand me a CAD file, what can I tell you about it? What manufacturing process should we use to make it (this goes beyond additive)? Where are the holes? What are the notable or defining geometric features? This kind of analysis is surprisingly hard to do with classical CAD which is why we have a different approach.

​Metafold‘s delivers geometric capabilities via API to solve tough design, simulation, automation and commercialization challenges with our customers. We really focus on the ways that geometry gets in the way of engineers being innovative, and use our technology to clear the path.”

—Elissa Ross, CEO & Co-founder Metafold3D

3D Printed Prosthetics and Wearables

“Challenges specific to our industry are the cost and strength of the materials. In dealing with orthotic devices, you are competing against traditionally manufactured devices that are assembled at massive scales overseas and from durable materials, such as metal or carbon fiber. We have been able to compete in certain niches by differentiating our product, offering substantially improved outcomes through the unique functionality of our device, and leveraging software to automate the design and manufacturing process. As technology advances and as competitors enter the industrial 3D printing space, the hope is that the baseline costs of industrial printing will come down in the future. Until then, it is important to position our products based on value and service rather than price. “

—Evan Eckersley, COO, co-founder Icarus Medical Innovations

“Overcoming the CAD hurdle, and making prints that are safe, functional, and considered
acceptable by the patient. It’s a classic engineering design triangle, you can usually only pick 2! If
it’s safe and functional, it’s likely too bulky for the patient. If the device is functional and used by
the patient, then I lose sleep wondering if/when it’s going to break. We have just scratched the
surface of CAD in O&P, and very few have ventured down the path of simulation, but I think
accurately constrained simulation will help us design safe AND functional devices.”

–Drew Meyer, MSPO, CPO

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by 💡Healthcare 3D Printing💡 (@3dheals)

Tissue Engineering

“Each 3D printing modality has its own strengths and limitations in terms of material selection, structural integrity, and design flexibility. For instance, extrusion 3D printing allows for a wide range of biomaterials but can restrict the design flexibility of the part to be printed. Implementation of sacrificial material could be a solution, it can make the printing process more complicated and has an adverse effect on the printed part quality. Selective laser sintering (SLS) modality can offer better structural integrity and design flexibility for the printed parts, but it has limited material selectivity. For the present, the key is selecting the appropriate 3D printing modality based on specific needs.

Although 3D printing has opened new possibilities, the quality of printed parts still does not yet match that of traditional manufacturing methods. Continuous research efforts are required for each 3D printing modality to address current limitations and enhance the quality of printed parts. This is particularly crucial for ensuring proper quality control, especially in clinical translations.”

–Dr. Jeong Hun Park

“There is no doubt that bioprinting has contributed to several advances in the field. The biggest challenge in bioprinting lies in the complexity of creating functional and viable constructs that can accurately mimic native tissues and organs. This involves addressing several key factors, including development of suitable multiculture systems, the precise incorporation of different cell types, optimization of cell concentrations, and selection of appropriate biomaterials among many other challenges. One potential solution to these challenges lies in advancing our understanding of tissue engineering principles and refining the techniques used in bioprinting. This includes further research into cell biology, biomaterial science, and tissue biomechanics to better replicate the intricate microenvironment of native tissues. Additionally, the development of advanced bioprinting technologies, such as multi-material printing and organ-on-a-chip systems, holds promise for enhancing the complexity and functionality of bioprinted constructs. By fostering partnerships and sharing knowledge across diverse fields, we can collectively overcome the challenges associated with bioprinting.”
–Dr. Mohammad Albanna, CEO Humabiologics

“Bioprinting is still in its early stages. Growing cells in safe and biocompatible materials with specific attributes depending on the application is hard. That’s the challenge we’re trying to help overcome, providing absorbable polymers with tunable physical, mechanical, and biological properties and controllable hydrolysis rate.”

–Dr. Rao Bezwada, CEO Bezwada Biomedical

“ Extrusion-based 3D bioprinting must show more compelling data to justify the many billions of R&D dollars and over a decade of intensive research.”

–Prof. Paul Dalton

” I’ve been delighted to see advances related to integrated parameter controls such as temperature controlled stages, imaging, and multiple printhead options but I think a remaining challenge in bioprinting is related to size resolution of printing complex, functional and viable tissues in their stereotypical arrangements.”

–Dr. Meghan Samberg, Chief Developement Officer, Stemson Therapeutics

Dental 3D Printing

“I think the biggest challenge to any of these technologies is widespread adoption. It takes a certain market threshold to produce a return on the R&D investment, and that doesn’t always happen, even when the technology is good for the world. It takes a mixture of cost, quality and convenience to make the case to the mass market. With 3D printing in dentistry, it’s only now catching on in a major way because the original “quality” factor is now mixed with the competitive pricing and appealing ROI calculations as well as the simple user experiences that are now more and more automated. In my opinion, continuing to showcase the multivariate value proposition that continues to intersect the declining cost-curve that has prevented many from adopting 3D printing yet. It’s only a matter of time that every dentist realizes that there are 15 new reasons to buy into 3D printing…which now costs 15 times lest than it did 15 years ago.”

–Dr. Andrew Johnson

“The challenges are:

1. The material for each use case
2. The complete digital ecosystem (data acquisition – CAD – 3D printing)
3. The doctor mental capacity to learn how to use the 3D printing & design
4. The economics 

Solutions: 1. More serious development of materials or the strategic option between materials, software, and hardware manufacturers. 
2. Vertical integration between scanner, CAD, 3D printing. And also offering that through system integrator channel partner not offering each piece separately
3. AI and automation to make the 3D printing easier to use/adopt for doctors
4. ROI calculator for the medical practice before building the product”

–Ahmed Adel, CEO & co-founder Zylo3D

Biomaterials

“Medical 3D printing can be used to create patient-specific medical devices.  This unique and custom approach provides apparent advantages for patients, but it also creates challenges in the creation of these devices, such as:  

1. What is the best way to regulate these devices for safety and patient design flexibility?  
2. How can the timeline for custom devices be shortened so that patients with acute injuries may be treated?  “

–Esther Valliant, Scientist, Himed

“ In medical 3D printing, it has already achieved a big success worldwide, we are now waiting regulators in more countries to adapt to this new trend. There will still be a long way to go for bio-printing. Being good on journals doesn’t usually imply an easy success. The solution must demonstrate its efficacy at good marginal benefits. The industry and the end clients will take a long time to make bio-printing a new treatment routine. Someone must select an excellent medical indication, develop the first market-viable product, and try it clinically before talking about a booming bio-printing industry segment. “

–Wilson Wong, CEO Novus Life Sciences

Related Links:

Pitch3D: Most Innovative Medical 3D Printing Startups 2024

3DHEALS Influencer Interviews

3DHEALS Events

The post Challenges (& Opportunities) in Medical 3D Printing appeared first on 3DHeals.

By Marion Willam

Want to write a piece for 3DHEALS Expert Corner? Email us: info@3dheals.com

Research is the alpha and omega of innovation and continuous improvement. Hannah Riedle from the Institute for Factory Automation and Production Systems (FAPS) at Friedrich Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU) dedicates her doctoral thesis to modeling with silicones. Her partnership with WACKER’s ACEO team gives her the opportunity to test this material with a groundbreaking 3D printing technology.

Biomodeling is meant to display anatomic structures and can be subdivided into two fields: individual and generic models. Individual models are produced for a very specific purpose — e.g. pre-surgical testing, prostheses, or epitheses. Generic models have an educational function. Think about the models used at school in biology, or for med students. More and more of these models are being 3D printed individually in hospitals or e.g. among oral and maxillofacial surgeons. Until today, the choice of 3D printing materials is limited and thus the models are only applicable for very limited purposes. At the same time, the modern radiological procedures such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or computed tomography (CT) scans deliver data. These data can be used to create 3D printed models with new materials such as silicone, which is what Hannah Riedle focuses on.

When she started the research for her doctoral thesis in 2015, she read a press release from WACKER, announcing a new silicone 3D printing technology under the brand ACEO. Her initial call resulted in a 3-year research project to evaluate and establish 3D printing with silicones in biomodeling, and to find a way to translate MRI or CT data so they can be easily integrated in the 3D printing process. Together they define which applications might be interesting for ACEO’s technology, and Hannah can 3D print her own parts and evaluate the opportunities first-hand. While she gets help from the team whenever needed, ACEO benefits from Hannah’s insights and learns what their technology needs to deliver.

3D printing with silicones has a major advantage for biomodeling: it allows to create organic structures with complex interior structures. It offers a variety of applications and comes in different degrees of hardness. With the use of silicone we entered a new level of individualization and applications. The manifold properties make this material flexible, elastic, it can be deformed and afterwards it re-creates its original form. Silicone can even be cut and stitched, making it the perfect material for pre-surgical planning and testing. A surgeon could 3D print a patient’s heart using imaging data and practice the planned steps in almost real conditions and thus anticipate and reduce complications during the surgery.

3D printing with silicones might significantly expand existing markets of medical applications such as prostheses or epitheses while complementing older technologies. Hannah’s contribution in this field could help improve certain medical treatments or therapies and have an impact on medical education with more realistic generic models — making a big difference in people’s lives by facilitating pre-surgical testing.

Related Articles:

Metal 3D Printing in Dentistry – Restoration

Healthcare 3D Printing in Orthopedics: A Frontier

3D Printing Metal: Where we’ve been and where we’re going

The post How 3D Printing with Silicones Might Change Medical Science appeared first on 3DHeals.

— How Close are We to Artificial Tissues and Organs?

May 3–5, 2017, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Often, whenever people hear the term “healthcare 3D printing”, a common response from them is, “yes, I saw that on the news, are we really printing kidneys?” Although the field of healthcare 3d printing includes a much wider range of healthcare applications using 3D printing (or additive manufacture) technologies, what 3D bioprinting can do (or not do) has been a mystery to many. A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to find out myself during the first “Printing the Future of Therapeutics in 3D” conference, in Vancouver, Canada.

The conference lasts three days, and was co-hosted by Dr. Christian Naus from University of British Columbia, and CEO of Aspect Biosystems, Tamer Mohamed. The event gathered many leading scientists in the field, including MIT, Harvard, UBC, UW, among others. A few commercial representatives were also present, including Aspect Biosystems, Biobots, GSK, and of course, a few lawyers.

I had a chance to join on last day of the conference. There was no theatric display of new technologies, but plenty of in-depth scientific presentations and intimate networking and discussions. It was reassuring to see an elite line up of speakers because some questions will be answered, and if there is no answer, at least an honest “I don’t know”.

What are 3D bioprinting scientists working on?

• • Generate 3D complex disease model such as spinal neural tissues (Dr. Stephainie Willerth’s work), brain glioma model (Wun Chey Sin’s work). One can think of these as the “Rapid Prototyping” of a disease using 3D printing.

• Tissue engineering for tissue replacement, for example, musculoskeletal tissue (Dr. Grainne Cunnifee). One can think of this moving from RP to “production” level of bioprinting.

By the way, none of these is used on actual human.

What is the connection between 3D Printing and bioprinting?

– Both processes use the concept of additive manufacture, which means a digitally controlled manufacture process by adding layers of materials one on top of another to eventually create a 3D object. In the case of bioprinting, the material is often biocompatible materials laced with cellular components. Similar to regular 3D printing, bioprinting also uses common processes like FDM, or SLA. However, because the end goal of bioprinting is to produce a living piece of tissue, modifcations are needed to create the type of biocompatible structures.

– Some updates in bioprinting techniques include:

o New SLA bioprinting technique that uses visible light spectrum (rather than UV light) by Dr. Keekyoung Kim

o New microfluidics-enabled bioprinter that promises high throughput 3D bioprinting option by Dr. Axel Guenther.

o New SLA printing technology for making lab-on-a-chip by Dr. Albert Folch.

Microfluidic Art by FolchLab

How long before we can see an organ 3D printed?

Needless to say, the implication of 3D printing implantable human organs not only means millions of lives saved or improved, it also means a complete disruption of the trillion-dollar healthcare industry. Transplant or not, having a replacement tissue or organ will completely disrupt the supply chain of healthcare. The only problem is that, we are NOT there yet. FDA regulation is a foreseeable challenge to synthetic organs, but there is currently no engineered tissue used for treatment purpose in human body. Researchers and CEOs alike are reluctant in answering when we will have a true human tissue replacement. However, what is in the immediate horizon is a potentially scalable industry focusing on how to improve current therapeutic R&D pipeline with advanced technologies like bioprinting. However, even establishing value of bioprinting as a more effective disease model for pharma R&D is still in early stage, said Dr. Claire Jeong from GSK. At the end of the day, it will require a collaborative effort between academia and industry to fund, develop, and fully commercialize the technology for a scalable solution. One of the most important recent progress is the establishment of IQ Consortium, where the pharma companies provide a guideline for startups and academia for product development. It is worth a look.

Remembering how hard it was for 3DHEALS to find the bioprinting community two years ago when we just started, it is very exciting to me personally to see the community is finally taking shape. Most importantly, I saw a real bioprinter in action for the first time in my life.

The post 3D Bioprinting: Truth is Beautiful appeared first on 3DHeals.

Q: What is your vision for bioprinting?

A: The applications of bioprinting technology will continue to rapidly advance and will have a major impact on drug development, personalized medicine, and organ transplantation. I imagine a future where life-saving drugs are more efficiently developed without the use of animals, where doctors can determine how a patient will react to a drug before prescribing it, and where replacement organs can be 3D printed using a patient’s own cells, without dealing with wait lists or organ rejection. This is a future that could be enabled by bioprinting technology.

Q: What do you specialize in?

A: Our team at Aspect Biosystems is focused on developing tissues for pre-clinical drug development. An example of this includes a 3D bioprinted tissue that models airway constriction and relaxation. This bioprinted tissue is being used in the development of novel asthma therapeutics. We also focus on developing 3D tissues for clinical applications. A key part of our strategy involves partnering with best-in-class pharma and biotech firms to develop impactful application of our platform technology. An example of this is a collaboration between Aspect and Johnson and Johnson where we are working closely to develop 3D printed knee meniscus tissue for surgical therapy.

Q: What inspires you to do what you do?

A: I am inspired by the amazing potential of bioprinting technology in changing the way we develop drugs and treat disease. I am also inspired by our team at Aspect. Our team of world-class scientists and engineers is constantly pushing the boundaries of our technology with the goal of ultimately making a meaningful impact on patients.

Q: What is the best business lesson you have learned?

A: Starting a business is hard. As Elon Musk says, “starting a company is like eating glass and staring into the abyss”. Having a deep passion and excellent team to get through the difficulties of starting a business is crucial.

Q: How do you ensure you’re making informed decisions?

A: Surrounding myself with smart people I trust, taking their feedback critically, and gathering relevant and current information and data.

Q: How will bioprinting impact pharma R&D?

A: The pre-clinical phase of drug development is in need of increased physiological relevance. Bioprinting will enable us to create tissues that are more predictive of the human response to drugs. Using bioprinted tissues in pre-clinical drug development will allow us to eliminate drugs that won’t work or are unsafe in humans sooner, and take safe and effective drugs into clinical trials with a higher chance of success.

Q: How will bioprinting impact regenerative medicine?

A: Medicine is going to get a lot more personalized, and this is where bioprinting really shines — it’s a customization platform. I imagine in the not so distant future, we will be creating tissues that are customized to your own body, made up of your own cells, to replace diseased tissue.

The post Interview: Mr. Tamer Mohamed appeared first on 3DHeals.

Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School — Harvard and Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology.

Ali Khademhosseini is Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Biomaterials Innovation Research Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He is also a faculty at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology as well as an Associate Faculty at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and a Junior PI at Japan’s World Premier International-Advanced Institute for Materials Research at Tohoku University where he directs a satellite laboratory. He is recognized as a leader in combining micro- and nano-engineering approaches with advanced biomaterials for regenerative medicine applications. In particular, his laboratory has pioneered numerous technologies and materials for controlling the architecture and function of engineered vascularized tissues. He has authored over 500 journal papers (H-index = 86, ~29,000 citations) and 50 books/chapters. In addition, he has delivered 300+ invited/keynote lectures.Dr. Khademhosseini’s interdisciplinary research has been recognized by over 40 major national and international awards. He is a recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor given by the US government for early career investigators. He is also a fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES), Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), Fellow of the Biomaterials Sciences and Engineering (FBSE) and American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Currently he serves on the editorial board of numerous leading journals as well as an Associate Editor for ACS Nano (IF: 12) and a permanent member of NIH BTSS study section. He received his Ph.D. in bioengineering from MIT (2005), and MASc (2001) and BASc (1999) degrees from University of Toronto both in chemical engineering. Read more at: http://www.tissueeng.net/.

Q: What is your vision on the intersection of 3D Printing and healthcare?

A: I envision that 3D printing can create a wide variety of products with a huge impact on healthcare. Such products, in the form of tissues and organs for tissue regeneration and drug testing will bring a paradigm shift in the fields of personalized prosthetics, implants, and anatomical models.

Q: What do you specialize in? What is your passion?

A: My research is focused on developing micro- and nano scale biomaterials to control cellular behavior with particular emphasis on developing engineered materials and systems for tissue engineering. In particular, I am passionate about developing various approaches to merge micro fabrication techniques such as 3D bioprinting, photo lithography, and microfluidics with hydrogel biomaterials for directing cell organization and generating complex 3D tissues. I am also developing ‘organ-on-a-chip’ systems that aim to mimic human response to various chemicals in vitro. In addition, my laboratory is developing technologies to control the formation of vascularized tissues with appropriate micro architectures as well as regulating stem cell differentiation within micro engineered systems.

Q: What inspired you to do what you do?

A: A passion for science and bringing technologies that make a change for the larger good is what inspired me. I have been lucky to have had my education under the shadows of some great scientists who have brought ground breaking concepts and technologies from bench to bedside that continue to change the lives of millions.

Q: What is the biggest potential impact you see 3D printing having on the healthcare industry?

A: The application of 3D bioprinting technologies in healthcare industry can provide many potential impacts, including: the customization and personalization of medical products, drugs, and equipment, cost-effectiveness, increased productivity, the democratization of design and manufacturing, and enhanced collaboration.

Q: What challenges do you see arising in implementing 3D printing in healthcare sector in the next 5 years?

A: A major challenge in making large tissues is vascularization. The pace at which the 3D bioprinting technology is developing, I see it is not a distant dream to achieve.

Q: What is the best business lesson you have learned?

A: I have learned that to enable biofabricated products, a synergy of multidisciplinary scientific fields such as mechanics, computer science, biomaterials, biology, tissue engineering, etc. is required for a successful translation. There is always a market for technologies that are disruptive in their approach to address a particular health problem.

Q: What is the biggest business risk you have taken?

A: It was to accept a job offer at Harvard Medical School as it is a very challenging environment.

[et_pb_image src=”” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” animation=”left” sticky=”off” align=”left” force_fullwidth=”off” always_center_on_mobile=”on”][/et_pb_image]

The post Interview: Prof. Ali Khademhosseini appeared first on 3DHeals.

Q: What is your vision on the intersection of 3D Printing and healthcare?

A: Humans are incredibly varied in their geometry, and therefore I think the ability to customize anything that is essentially a “replacement part” will be welcomed by physicians.

Q: What do you specialize in? What is your passion? 

A: My passion is good ideas and building teams to make them happen.

Q: What inspired you to do what you do? 

A: I don’t think I could put my finger on that, I just turned out that way.

Q: What is the biggest potential impact you see 3D printing having on the healthcare industry? 

A: An infinite number of custom parts not just to replace bone matter, but to replace more complicated structures in the body as well.

Q: What challenges do you see arising in implementing 3D printing in healthcare sector in the next 5 years? 

A: All the usual suspects: regulatory environment, lack of capital for hardware startups, difficulty of building clinical data, etc.

Q: What is the best business lesson you have learned? 

A: Be ready to have even your most basic assumptions and best ideas proven wrong. You need to listen to the market to find the right answer.

Q: What is the biggest business risk you have taken?

A: I decided to become an unemployed entrepreneur right after my first child was born. I’m lucky my wife didn’t kill me.

The post Interview: Mr. Nathan Harding appeared first on 3DHeals.

Victor Portes is Executive Director of A&E Innovation & Design B.V. and Director & Chief Creative Officer of Silou Elle:tm: (3D Printed) Customized Bra Inlay & Bra Fit Solutions. He has over 20 years of combined experience in the areas of 3D printing, experience design, branded environments & event design, in-store retail communication, strategy and concept development, product development, publishing, art direction and education. Currently he lives in Amsterdam, but his career has taken him to cities all over the world, including New York, Santo Domingo, Barcelona, Dusseldorf and Munich.

3DHEALS innovator story series feature interviews of a group of innovators in the healthcare 3D printing industry.

Q: What inspired you the idea behind Silou Elle™

A: Let me start with a quote by L’Wren Scott,

“Enhancing a woman’s silhouette and enhancing a woman’s beauty — both contribute to enhancing her confidence, so they’re synonymous, really.”

What this said, my family has been hit very hard by breast cancer. In the past ten years, I lost four family members. In addition to this, I have a sister and a niece who are survivors. I also have to add that, on the day we officially started with this project, my wife Mirjam was diagnosed with breast cancer. I was very lucky to have Marianna Duckker (one of our co-founders) there to support me. Marianna is the owner of Marilinge, the leading specialist in Amsterdam for breast prostheses, custom lingerie, swim-wear, and underwear, who happens to be is a breast cancer survivor herself. Mirjam had surgery, double lumpectomy, radiation, and chemotherapy. It is safe to say that she is now cancer free for 17 months and back to work as Corporate Secretary of the Amsterdam Central Library (OBA), tough girl!

From an innovation perspective, I guess I was at the right place at the right time, with access to the to good knowledge e.g. 3D printing. Through my network, I had come across some material developments that help me connect the dots. From that moment on, I was confident that customized breast prosthesis and bra inlays and bra fit solutions will become a reality available for women worldwide.

Q: What were the initial challenges?

A: Our initial challenge was to find a way to make our vision, product ideas and business model tangible in such a way that all stakeholders clearly understood the impact that our innovation will bring to the world. Another crucial part was getting the right people on board to develop the business model and carry out the vision.

3D Printed breast prosthetics for breast cancer survivors

Q: What are the current challenges?

A: There are many challenges, including funding, continuously leveraging our resources within various networks (ranging from the scientific and healthcare communities, the policy makers, the support groups, the 3d printing, and fashion systems). The biggest challenge is having patience while managing momentum at the same time. This is especially important when you are considered crazy enough to try and transform an entire (global) industry. Although we are at the early stages of prototyping our product, our new approach to product innovation, business development, and strategic use of our networks in the past few months has put the wind in our sails. So expect to hear some exciting news from Silou Elle™ before the end of this year!

Q: What is your vision for Silou Elle?

A: In 3 years, a working solution everywhere in the US and Europe. In 5 years, world wide.

Q: Who founded Siluo Elle?

A: Inspired by our individual’s experiences with Breast Cancer, the team members concluded two years ago that the existing solutions for women having had breast surgery were the result of high technical skills, done in the best possible way but not “custom made.” This unique and international combination of talent is determined to come up, with the best, next generation of the external breast prosthesis, custom made and designed with understanding.

Silou Elle™ Team:

Victor Luis Portes Founder-Director & Chief Creative Officer; Frans Blanchard Director Business, Communication & Legal Advice ; Marianna Dukker is Mastectomy Lingerie Product Development & Healthcare Expert; Donato DiBiase. Biomdical, Business Management, Product Development & Technology Strategist ; Arnold Perizonius Lingerie Business, Product Development & Manufacturing Advisor.

You may also like:

Interview: Jake Eva, Custom Orthopedic Solutions, Ohio

The post Interview: Mr. Victor Portes, Founder of Silou Elle™ appeared first on 3DHeals.

Q: What is the biggest business risk you have taken?

A: Ha. We risked everything to take on the task of starting Tangible Solutions. I had 4 jobs at one point just to make ends meet while we were getting started. We took out a credit account to put the down payment on our first two machines. 80+ hour workweeks 7 days a week for next to nothing. It’s a huge risk.

Mr. Chris Collins, Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder of Tangible Solutions, is an industry leading Mechanical Engineer. Listed on 2 Patents, He has intimate knowledge of Engineering Design for overall manufacturability of products, especially for 3D Printing; and applies kinematic design and analysis techniques through engineering design software. He has significant experience applying and manufacturing trabecular structures for medical implant applications. Mr. Chris Collins will be a speaker at #3DHEALS2017.

Q: What is your vision on the intersection of 3D Printing and healthcare?

A: Right now, I see AM & Healthcare intersecting most heavily in the emergency custom implant arena. There are many articles surrounding the topic. As we move forward with the technology, we will see titanium orthopedic implants taking over.

Q: What do you specialize in? What is your passion?

A: I specialize in mechanical design for Additive Manufacturing. Particularly implementing trabecular (randomized porous) structures in medical devices. This has become a passion of mine through experience. There is nothing like knowing that I contributed toward a design that will soon help improve the quality of life for an individual.

Q: What is the biggest potential impact you see 3D printing having on the healthcare industry?

A: In regard to the manufacturing world: I see the biggest impact being on the orthopedic implant industry. There are a multitude of devices, custom plates, etc, that could benefit greatly from design freedoms offered by AM. Something I’m not as familiar with is bio-printing. I think this is truly a game-changer when it comes to growing an organ or other functional body parts is something that isn’t far off — if it doesn’t already exist in some capacity.

Q: What challenges do you see arising in implementing 3D printing in healthcare sector in the next 5 years?

A: Some of the biggest challenges are quality & regulatory. These are seen as hurdles by some, but the safeguards are in place for a reason, and we’ve all just got to work together to reach reasonable solutions through gaining a better understanding of the processes on both sides of the proverbial fence.

Q: What is the best business lesson you have learned?

A: There have been so many lessons learned throughout the entrepreneurial process… Some of the most important in relation to Additive is that you’ve absolutely got to design for the process. Printing the same part that can be easily injection molded, milled, turned, cut, etc is often the opposite of the correct use of the technology. Engineers must have an understanding of the factors that drive cost in an additively manufactured part, and the benefits associated (often improved performance).

Q: What is the biggest business risk you have taken?

A: Ha. We risked everything to take on the task of starting Tangible Solutions. I had 4 jobs at one point just to make ends meet while we were getting started. We took out a credit account to put the down payment on our first two machines. 80+ hour workweeks 7 days a week for next to nothing. It’s a huge risk.

Q: What crucial skill should people aiming to work in this industry acquire?

A: There is a huge gap in technical operators of equipment. Training programs are few & far between, and experienced techs are already gainfully employed inside a business that has a demand for that position. This is a big reason that TS is largely involved with local Community Colleges as well as Universities in the development of technical skill-sets.

Q: What is your vision on the next step for metal 3DP in healthcare?

A: I think the next step is production-level capacities for Titanium orthopedic devices. Although I am admittedly ignorant to the state of bioprinting.

The post Interview: Mr. Chris Collins appeared first on 3DHeals.

“The ‘law of 3D printing,’ if such can be said to exist, challenges those existing specialties and divisions, if only by linking the intangible and ever-changing world of “cyberlaw” to our relationship with manufacturing and manufactured objects.”

Martin Galese is General Counsel for Formlabs, a desktop 3D printing company. Formlabs produces high-resolution desktop 3D printers for engineers and designers. Before joining Formlabs, Mr. Galese worked as an IP litigator at the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis LLP in New York City and pursued his passion for 3D printing after hours. Mr. Galese’s earlier Patent-Able project, turning expired patents into 3D printable models, has been covered by both the NY Times and Popular Science. Mr. Galese has previously spoken about legal and policy issues involving 3D printing at the Annual Corporate IP Counsel Forum, 3D Printshow New York, 3D/DC and before the Intellectual Property Owners Association, the Boston Bar Association, the Harvard Journal of Law and Technology, and the Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal.

Q: What is your vision on the intersection of 3D Printing and healthcare?

A: Of all the industries benefiting from the 3D printing revolution, healthcare has the potential to be among the most radically transformed. As the pharmaceutical industry moves steadily towards personalized drug interventions, so too will medical devices become increasingly customized for patients and treatment needs. 3D printing is the enabling technology for that transformation.

Formlabs Class I Biocompatible : Dental SG Resin

Q: What do you specialize in? What is your passion?

A: I see my role as General Counsel for Formlabs as providing the integrated approach and broad view of generalist to a field of increasingly focused and silo-ed field-specific legal experts. The “law of 3D printing,” if such can be said to exist, challenges those existing specialties and divisions, if only by linking the intangible and ever-changing world of “cyberlaw” to our relationship with manufacturing and manufactured objects.

Q: What inspired you to do what you do?

A: As a sci-fi fan, I have dreamed about what a post-scarcity world might look like. And as an IP litigator, I have had the opportunity to see the ways in which legal rules shape R&D today and might shape our technological future. I see 3D printing bringing these threads together, providing innovators, scientists, and doctors with tools today to help bring future technologies to everyone more quickly. The chance to work in this industry, help it grow, and provide such powerful tools to our customers is very fulfilling and inspiring for me.

Q: What challenges do you see arising in implementing 3D printing in healthcare sector in the next 5 years?

A: One of the more significant challenges lies in training healthcare workers, who may be largely unfamiliar with any manufacturing technology, in the appropriate use of 3D printing technology. Without excellent resources and support, medical users of 3D printers may lack the tools and skills to provide the full benefits to their patients.

The post Interview: Mr. Martin Galese appeared first on 3DHeals.