Interview with Dr. Yearla Srinivasa Rao: Medoja Health

Dr. Yearla Srinivasa Rao is presently working as a chief operating officer of Medoja Health Private Limited, which is a healthcare company with a focus on 3D printing of patient-specific bespoke customized implants using novel biomaterials, and manufacturing of biomaterials from natural sources for medical 3D printing applications. Bone defects are filled with ceramic granules traditionally in many cases, without considering the shape fidelity to the defect or providing vascular supply. Medoja addressed this by using a ceramic composition that can be 3D printable to address shape fidelity and generate vascular supply to it. Yearla completed his Ph.D. from the University of Hyderabad and has overall 6+ years of post PhD industrial experience in nanomaterials and biomaterials-based product development for agriculture, cosmetic, nutraceuticals, and pharmaceutical industries. He managed project activities from BIRAC and DBT during his tenure in the industry along with working in a multidisciplinary environment to manage sales, marketing, production, and business development, teams. He will be speaking at our upcoming Healthcare 3D Printing Ecosystem : India event in September.

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

Yearla: When I worked as Scientific Advisor for Matrix Nano Private Limited for their product developments, I encountered the utilization of metal spherical powders in 3D printing applications. I feel that additive manufacturing applications have highly emerged in aerospace and defense applications when compared to biomedical applications.

What inspired you to start your journey?

Yearla: While I was looking to start my journey as an entrepreneur by venturing into nanomaterials manufacturing, I met Dr. Uday Kiran who is a Founder of Medoja Health Private Limited, and has developed bioceramics for dental 3D printing applications. I found that 3D printing of biomaterials would solve some real-life problems. Since this technology is almost similar to my interest and expertise; I joined as a co-founder of this emerging start-up. 

Who inspired you the most along this journey in 3D printing?

Yearla:

Dr. Uday Kiran, Founder of Medoja Health Private Limited

Dr. Vidya Sagar, Professor and periodontist, KIMS, Hyderabad

Mr. Aditya, Founder, AM Chronicle

What motivates you the most for your work? 

Yearla: Learning new things on daily basis, building our start-up from scratch, connecting and meeting interesting people, working with a multidisciplinary team

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

Yearla: In this present venture, making dental doctors understand the 3D printing technology is a big challenge we are facing for tier II and tier 3 cities. We are jotting down a plan to overcome this challenge.

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

Yearla: Medical 3D printing is a regulated market, and guidelines for them are not fully framed by CDSCO or any other global agency. To my knowledge, only patient-specific case studies are being conducted by most of the medical 3D printing companies across the globe. I presume that there is a lot of scope for additive manufacturing in medical sector if policymakers, regulatory bodies, industries, and academic institutions work together.

If you are granted three wishes by a higher being, what would they be? 

Yearla:

  1. Introduce with good equity investors and make them invest with a good chunk, whenever we want 🙂
  2. Success in my entrepreneur journey
  3. Health and happy life

What advice would you give to a smart driven college student in the “real world”? What bad advices you heard should they ignore? 

Yearla:

        My Advice – Take the life as it is

        Advice to Ignore – Money is everything in life

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3DHEALS Ohio: Hidden Gems (On Demand, March 18th, 2021)

3DHeals Melbourne – 3D MedTech Innovation (On Demand, 2021)

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