Feb 05, 2022 In this episode, I had the pleasure to chat with professor Stephanie Willerth at the University of Victoria, also the founder and CEO of Axolotl Biosciences about bioprinting and bioink. Stephanie is not only an expert in bioprinting and bioinks in general, but also one of a few scientists in the world focusing on using 3D cell models on common but devastating neurological diseases such as GBM, Parkinson’s Disease, and Alzheimer’s Disease. We started with some basic concepts related to bioprinting, bioinks, organoids, and organ-on-a-chip, and some of the general current applications and ongoing researches. All of these technologies, however, require sophisticated bioink formulation to achieve structural and functional goals. Also, who are the major players in commercial bioprinting?
Good news, prof. Willerth will be sharing her experiences at our virtual event 3D Bioprinting and Organoids.
Other versions of this episode and important links:
About our guest for this episode:
Dr. Willerth holds a Canada Research Chair in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Victoria where she has dual appointments in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Division of Medical Sciences as an Associate Professor.
She serves as the Acting Director for the Centre for Biomedical Research at the University of Victoria and on the steering committee of the B.C. Regenerative Medicine Initiative. She also served as the President of the Canadian Biomaterials Society from 2017-2018. Her honors include being named the 2018 REACH award winner for Excellence in Undergraduate Research-inspired Teaching, a Woman of Innovation in 2017, one of the 2015 Young Innovators in Cellular and Biological Engineering, and a “Star in Global Health” by Grand Challenges Canada in 2014. She spent the Fall of 2016 on sabbatical at the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery supported by the International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries International Travel Award where she wrote her book “Engineering neural tissue using stem cells” published by Academic Press.
She completed her postdoctoral work at the University of California-Berkeley after receiving her Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Washington University. Her undergraduate degrees were in Biology and Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
When was the first encounter you had with 3D printing? What was that experience like? What were you thinking at that moment?
Stephanie: I had been interested in 3D printing for years as the University of Victoria is home to the non-profit – Victoria Hand Project. It was in 2016 and meeting with Erik Gateholm from Cellink that I began to see the potential of this technology for tissue engineering.Â
What inspired you to start your journey/company/career/research in 3D printing (bio-fabrication/bio-printing)?
Stephanie: I was always interested in science and engineering. With regards to bioprinting, our lab was excited to explore this technology as a way to standardize and increase the throughput of the tissue engineering process. Â
Who inspired you the most along this journey in 3D printing (bio-printing/bio-fabrication)? This can be a mentor, a patient, a celebrity, anyone basically. You can name more than one as well.
Stephanie: Joe DeSimone – founder of Carbon and fellow professor – is inspiring as he shows how to balance running an academic group while translating 3D printing technologies for commercial applications. Â
What motivates you the most for your work?Â
Stephanie: I have always been fascinated by the nervous system and our work is motivated by trying to find better treatments and cures for neurodegenerative diseases.Â
What is/are the biggest obstacle(s) in your line of work? If you have conquered them, what were your solutions?Â
Stephanie: Scale-up of cell production is a major challenge when bioprinting physiologically relevant human tissue models. Characterization of the tissues and their properties can also be challenging.Â
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)?
Stephanie: See above – better bioreactor technology will play a role as will driving down the costs of cell culture media and reagents.Â
If you are granted three wishes by a higher being, what would they be?Â
Stephanie: Accessible healthcare for everyone, sufficient research funding to pursue all our ideas, and more time to do science.Â
What advice would you give to a smart driven college student in the “real world”? What bad advices you heard should they ignore?Â
Stephanie: I would suggest working in both academic research labs as well as in industry to see what each experience is like. Also, it is never to early to start networking.Â
What’s your favorite book you read this year and why? Alternatively, what’s your favorite book of all times you read and why?
Stephanie: For business purposes, Walter Issacson’s biography of Elon Musk was an interesting read. For fiction, Navola by Paolo Bacigalupi was intriguing though I did not realize that it is the first of a series.Â
Related Links:
3D Bioprinting Glioblastoma Models for Drug Screening
3D Bioprinting Personalized Brain Tissues
3DHEALS IG Live Recordings: 3D Printing in Veterinary Medicine with Richard Doerer
3D Bioprinting Substrate Stiffness – Often Overlooked, But Always at Work
From Academia: Tweaking Bioinks Palette, One-Drop 3D Printing
From Academia: Nanoclay Bioink, Machine Learning, Hydrogel Design Strategies for 3D Bioprinting
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