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Nothing excites me more than to see the progress we have made in the world of bioprinting. It really hasn’t been that long ago when the first idea of bioprinted organs came about, since then many research groups have jumped onto the bandwagon of bioprinting, and in the last 5 years, we have witnessed the burst of bioprinting companies that spun out of academic labs. To evaluate where we are today, here’s a quick recap of the progress made in 2018, by companies and research institutes propelling the bioprinting industry. 

On research innovations, several companies announced key scientific milestones that are fulfilling the promises of bioprinting. In April 2018, Organovo announced key breakthrough developments in their bioprinted liver tissue models for evaluating a spectrum of liver diseases and intestinal tissue models. This breakthrough is allowing researchers to develop new drugs for non-alcoholic fatty liver tissue diseases (NAFLD) more effectively at early stage development. One of the newest bioprinting startups, Biolife4D, announced their success in bioprinting a human cardiac patch, achieving a major milestone demonstrating their ability to 3D print human cardiac tissue derived from induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology. Our local Bay Area resident bioprinting company, Prellis Biologics, co-founded by two female scientists, announced the first pre-vascularized tissue scaffolds, Tissue Blanks TM designed for building complex 3D cell and tissue constructs. This is another major milestone which has, in the past, prohibited researchers to build larger constructs due to the lack of vasculature.

On the technology side, more innovative platforms are being developed. Poietis, a French-based bioprinting company, announced the launch of their next generation laser-assisted 4D bioprinting system. Aether, another Bay Area resident company, announced their new AI-powered 3D medical imaging software designed to enhance bioprinting capabilities, especially for organ printing. Allevi partnered up with Made in Space to create the first zero-gravity tissue 3D printer (Allevi ZeroG) and Cellink announced their partnership with Prellis Biologics to create the first holograph-based volumetric 3D bioprinter, Holograph-X. Both equally exciting developments in the bioprinting world to be looking forward to in perhaps 2019. 

The year of 2018 was also a year where more research collaborations are being made. Aspect Biosystems announced several academic collaborations with various universities including a project to 3D-bioprint skin with Dalhouise University. In addition, they also announced a collaboration with JSR corporation to create liver tissue. Poietis also partnered with Prometheus to develop high precision 3D bioprinting of tissue engineered advanced therapeutic medical products for skeletal regeneration. The Advanced Materials + BioEngineering Research (AMBER) center headquartered in Dublin has partnered with JnJ to tackle osteoarthritis by bioprinting implants that regenerate. 

On the funding side, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued $2.6M in grants toward 3D bioprinting and biomedical research last year. Awardees included Harvard University, Carnegie-Mellon University, Rutgers University, Georgia Institute of Technology and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Oxford spin-out bioprinting company, Oxsybio raised $10M GBP (~$14M USD) in Series A funding last year. Biolife4D initiated their Regulation A+ equity crowdfund investment offering in February 2018, this round is expected to close end of January 2019. 

With so much progress being made already in 2018, I cannot wait to see what lies ahead for us in this coming year. Companies and academics in the field are increasing collaborative efforts to bring together a convergence of technologies and knowledge that is only going to help us make in-roads and continued progress in healthcare and regenerative medicine.

About the author:

Mayasari Lim

Dr. Mayasari Lim is the West Coast Regional Account Manager for RoosterBio and an active contributor to the bioprinting community. She was founder and CEO of SE3D, a startup focused on bringing bioprinting into the classroom to support future workforce development. Previously, she was an assistant professor in Bioengineering at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Her research expertise included stem cell bioprocess engineering, bioprinting, and regenerative medicine. She also mentors and teaches leadership and management courses at the Fung Institute for Engineering Leadership at UC Berkeley. Dr. Lim obtained her Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London and her B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering at UC Berkeley.

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Jon A. Rowley, Ph.D., is the Founder & Chief Product Officer of RoosterBio Inc.  Jon started RoosterBio in 2013 as part of his personal quest of having the biggest impact possible on the commercial translation of technologies that incorporate living cells, including cellular therapies, engineered tissues, and tomorrow’s medical devices.  Jon holds a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in Biomedical Engineering and has authored over 35 peer-reviewed manuscripts and 20 issued or pending patents related to biomaterials development, tissue engineering, and cellular therapy.  Jon started his industry career at BD as a scientist and R&D manager in a Cell & Tissue Technologies group focused on applying high throughput screening technologies to cell therapy media development and tissue engineering.  Jon then contributed to the clinical development of Aastrom Biosciences’ Tissue Repair Cell product, where he was Sr Manager of Process Development responsible for manufacturing process improvements and cell delivery to the patient.  Jon most recently spent 5 years as Director of Innovation and Process Development in Lonza’s Cell Therapy CMO business, and currently resides in Walkersville, MD with his wonderful wife and their three children. Jon will be a speaker at our upcoming 3DHEALS2020.

Jenny: When was the first encounter you had with 3D printing? What was that experience like? What were you thinking at that moment?

Rowley: My first encounter was during college at the University of Michigan where my undergraduate degree was in Materials Engineering in the early 1990s.  I was getting exposed to all sorts of material processing technologies from metal forging to ceramic casting to fiber spinning and polymer injection molding. We even had access to an early SLA machine for rapid prototyping of computer-generated designs. During my undergraduate research work where I was developing applications for engineered protein polymers, the 3D fabrication technology that I utilized mostly was our departmental Scientific Glassblower, Harold.  I would pop up to his workshop with custom cell culture tool concepts that I needed to be created, but I had the added complexity of needing the ability to steam sterilize the pieces (a process that melts most plastics). I was utilizing many types of materials processing in my work, and quickly realized the practical applications in the engineering world.

Jenny: What inspired you to start your journey in 3D bio-fabrication?

Rowley: I started my journey in the 3D bio-fabrication of living tissues during my University days.  I was getting my BS in Materials Science & Engineering at Michigan when I fell in love with cell biology.  I ended up taking most of the classes within the Biology department even though it didn’t contribute to my degree – I just thought biology was an amazing field that I discovered a little too late to switch majors out of the Engineering school.  When I finally got to taking higher level Developmental Biology and Genetics classes, after taking all of these material processing classes in my engineering major, I started to look at living organisms simply as big material factories – making growth factors, cytokines, extracellular matrix or new cells when needed, on demand.  It was truly fascinating. This was around 1993-1994. As I was looking for what to study in Graduate School, this new field of Tissue Engineering was just starting to materialize, and Michigan hired its first faculty focused on this field named David Mooney out of MIT & Harvard. I really hit it off with Dave and ended up staying at Michigan and doing my PhD in his lab where we focused on how material properties can be engineered for tissue engineering applications.  We collaborated a ton during those initial years on projects associated with designing biomaterials to guide cell function and tissue structure. I got to bring much of my materials processing background to the table and many of our inventions were immediately made into formats that could be tested in practical applications. We filed several patents during that time – one (in collaboration with Larry Bonassar – now at Cornell) titled Injection Molding of Living Tissues.  It was a really fun and exciting time to be in Tissue Engineering, as everything was so new. I have kept my love of the tissue engineering and biofabrication fields alive when I started my current company, RoosterBio.

Jenny: Who inspired you the most along this journey in 3D printing bio-fabrication?

Rowley: I would say that my PhD advisor was the major inspiration when it came to solidifying my commitment to the biofabrication and tissue engineering field.  Dave Mooney was an inspiration on the technology, first and formost. But Dave also drove home many of the values that he picked up during his time working with his PhD co-advisors Bob Langer (an engineer) and Jay Vacanti (an MD).  The key messages being that the field of tissue engineering and biofabrication are quite multidisciplinary, requiring experts in chemical engineering, materials science, cell biology, medicine and surgery. Achieving success in this field does require diverse teams that work together and are able to put egos aside to achieve what hasn’t been accomplished before. As the field of tissue engineering moves from a research-focused field towards a clinically- and commercially-focused field, then experts in software, production hardware (the 3D printers), cell production (the most critical raw material of engineered tissues and organs), biomaterial scaffolds/bioinks, and tissue biopreservation are all required to make the product, and experts in medicine, clinical trial design, quality and regulatory to get the product through the regulatory authorities. Working with diverse teams of people throughout industry is what keeps things exciting and interesting for me.

Jenny: What motivates you the most for your work?

Rowley: I have 3 things that tremendously motivate me:

Being in a position to truly impact the direction of a field is extremely motivating. The team at RoosterBio have established a new business model within the field that is removing multiple barriers to the commercial translation of 3D bio-fabricated products.  As Alan Kay once said “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”, and we are doing just that.

My wife and kids are a massive motivating factor for me – they are my biggest cheerleaders and the ones that keep me grounded in life – and help me make the most out of every day.

Lastly, the tremendous team of irrationally dedicated individuals at RoosterBio that work tirelessly to get our game changing products to market so that biofabrication technologies will impact human health at a faster pace – while having fun and supporting each other through our ups and downs. Seeing all of our hard work pay off is extremely motivating to me.

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

Rowley: As the only truly limited resource, using time to the fullest is something I’m always looking to do. Prioritization of opportunities is key – getting unfocused can be devastating for small businesses. The best, and really the only way, to conquer the obstacles that we face at RoosterBio is to focus our amazing team on specific challenges and let them work through the various problems together. Being such a multi-disciplinary company with challenging issues, it requires several experts to weigh in on before a solution emerges.

Jenny: 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)?

Rowley: 3d printing of human tissues requires vast numbers of cells, at least hundreds of millions per tissue, and often billions to tens of billions to manufacture even small numbers of consistent tissue lots.  Obtaining these cell numbers is both technically and economically challenging. RoosterBio was founded to break down the technical and cost barrier of generating billions of cells, truly democratizing this piece of the biofabrication puzzle.  We have radically simplified the production to the point that anyone can now generate vast quantities of high quality cells – getting more projects into development, into the clinic, and eventually onto the market.

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

Rowley: Perfect is the enemy of great – live by the 80:20 rule and get imperfect products out into the world for rapid feedback – and then build on the successes and know when to cut your losses and move on.

Advice to ignore:  Many people don’t believe that innovation can be managed, or should be managed. They are wrong. There is a process to innovation that can be learned and implemented….. without proper oversight, almost everything will go off course. Learn how to manage, and everything will be OK.  Not everything will work or be successful, but you greatly increase your chances of success with basic management principles.

Jenny: If you could have a giant billboard to promote a message to millions and even billions of people in our community (i.e. healthcare 3D printing and bio-fabrication), what message would that be?

Rowley: “The best way to predict the future is the invent it.” Alan Kay.  What this means to me is to go out and make things that fit into your world view – prove it can be done and more people will do it.

Jenny: What were/was the best investment you made in 3D printing/bio-printing/bio-fabrication?

Rowley: Easy: Starting RoosterBio. The dividends from the learning I have had and the friendships I have started while building the RoosterBio business are immeasurable.

Jenny: What were/was the worst investment you made in 3D printing/bio-printing/bio-fabrication?

Rowley: I bought a first version 3D printing pen at MakerFair way before they worked well…… it lasted a weekend.

Jenny: What was/is the biggest risk you took in your career?

Rowley: Leaving a stable, established, good-paying job and cashing in my kids college fund to start my own company was by far the biggest risk I have taken… and I would do it all over again even if RoosterBio had failed.  Life is a journey, not a destination.

Jenny: What do you enjoy in your spare time? What are you passionate about outside of your work/3d printing?

Rowley: I focus most of my time outside of RoosterBio with my wife and three grade school children – bringing up future scientist-engineers and teaching them to relish in nerdiness and “to be awesome always”.

Jenny: What does the word “3DHEALS” mean to you?  =)

Rowley: Biofabrication of medical products is central to the success of Regenerative Medicine. Let’s stop treating disease, and start curing them!

The post Interview: Jon Rowley, Founder & Chief Product Officer, RoosterBio appeared first on 3DHeals.

Tyler Schon is founder and CEO of Pliant Power, an advanced materials company making the next generation of batteries using their Electric Plastics. Tyler completed his BSc in chemistry at the University of Western Ontario and his Ph.D. in Polymer and Materials Chemistry at the University of Toronto. In his Ph.D., he worked with Prof. Dwight Seferos on bio-inspired energy storage materials with a focus on lithium-ion batteries. There he discovered a class of Electric Plastic materials that replaced the heavy, expensive, and problematic metals in today’s lithium-ion batteries and he co-founded Pliant in 2017 to commercialize this technology. Since then, Tyler has been a part of the UTEST incubator, the Hatchery LaunchLab, and Creative Destruction Lab and has grown Pliant to a team of 11. Tyler is passionate about solving problems with new technology and in his spare time, enjoys the outdoors. Tyler will be speaking in the upcoming Toronto event.

Jenny: When was the first encounter you had with 3D printing? What was that experience like? What were you thinking at that moment?

Tyler: Before I started Pliant, I had only seen youtube videos and read a few articles about it. It was excited and I thought it was cool but never really saw it in action. It was only after I started Pliant that I saw it in action at a conference. I was amazed. All I could think of was the almost endless potential of this technology.

Jenny: What motivates you the most for your work?

Tyler: Solving real world problems and having a passion for the technology. Problem solving has always motivated me, even before I started working or school, and coupling that with innovative technology is what makes me look forward to every day.

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

Tyler: Probably the biggest thing that needs to be overcome is finding and convincing the right person in large multinational corporations that what you have is groundbreaking. The problem that the battery industry has is that there is a huge graveyard of companies that have pitched the dream and failed which has made the industry very skeptical. The big thing is trust, and that takes a while to build. It is something that we are still finding the right solution for and likely will remain a challenge going forward.

Jenny: 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)?

Tyler: Materials. The ability to print different materials that have different properties into a single functional product is a huge challenge that needs to be solved. Formulating those materials into printable inks is another huge problem that takes years of experience to get good at for conventional printing and 3D printer inks add another dimension of complexity. Likely some advanced research tool that couples machine learning and artificial intelligence to speed up that process is part of the solution.

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

Tyler:

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

Tyler: Don’t do things that don’t serve a purpose in your life. The purpose can even be ‘it makes me happy’ or ‘if I don’t do this I will get fired’. Time is the most valuable thing you have. Don’t waste it.  

Any sort of advice about totally avoiding risk is usually something you should ignore. Anything worthwhile doing is a risk. Obviously, don’t take stupid risks and don’t bet the farm but don’t be afraid of the risk of failure.

Jenny: If you could have a giant billboard to promote a message to millions and even billions of people in our community (i.e. healthcare 3D printing and bio-fabrication), what message would that be?

Tyler: Try something impossible.

Jenny: What was/is the biggest risk you took in your career?

Tyler: Probably starting Pliant. Best risk I ever took.

Jenny: What do you enjoy in your spare time? What are you passionate about outside of your work/3d printing?

Tyler: Anything outdoors. I really enjoy camping and everything that goes with it. It lets you get away from the busy life of work and do some self-realization and reflection.

I am passionate about helping people. Whether that be about offering advice, mentoring or helping to solve a problem they are having, that is what I enjoy and it ties very much into the work that I do.

Jenny: What is your favorite quote? Why?

Tyler: “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” – Wayne Gretzky

Most endeavors that are worthwhile are dependent on you taking risks. People fail all of the time. The important thing is to learn from what you do and build upon that.

Jenny: What does the word “3DHEALS” mean to you?  =)

Tyler: It means using new technology to help people heal. Technology is supposed to help people and I think 3D heals encompasses this central dogma.

The post Interview: Tyler Schon, Founder and CEO of Pliant Power appeared first on 3DHeals.

On Feb 27th, 2019, we had another successful 3DHEALS event at the beautiful Reed Smith office in downtown Washington DC, learning from and networking with a group of passionate multidisciplinary enthusiasts from Washington D.C. and Maryland area from the healthcare 3D Printing and 3D Bioprinting industry. The feedback from the event was incredibly positive, and lots of productive follow-up conversations and collaborations ensure. The following are videos from the presentation section of the event. The panel discussion after the presentation is not publicized and only available to a live audience due to privacy and legal concerns. Only 3DHEALS members will have access to the videos below. 3DHEALS membership is free.

Program:

6:30-7:00 PM Registration/Networking

7:00-7:15 PM ReedSmith LLP sponsor intro (Matthew Jacobson) /3DHEALS community manager Ben Holmes intro

7:15-7:25 PM Ben Holmes (Nanochon)

7:25-7: 30 PM Q&A

7:30-7: 40 PM Jeff Vockrodt (Arent Fox)

7:40-7:45 PM Q&A

7:45-7:55 PM Jon Rowley (RoosterBio) :Why Stem Cell Manufacturing Matters:  Cell Therapy Bioprocess Innovations are Laying the Groundwork for a Sustainable Tissue Engineering Revolution

7:55-8:00 PM Q&A

8:00-8:10 PM Yi Arnold (Theradaptive) :Targeted Therapeutics Delivery for Tissue Regeneration.

8:10-8:15 PM Q&A

8:15-8:45 PM Panel Q&A

8:45-9:30 PM Networking and wrap-up

Related Links:

Interview: Benjamin Holmes, 3DHEALS Community Manager, Washington D.C.

Past 3DHEALS Events

3DHEALS Washington D.C: Pushing Boundaries – Healthcare 3D Printing & Bioprinting, Feb 27th, 2019

The post Recap: 3DHEALS Washington D.C – Pushing Boundaries in Healthcare 3D Printing & 3D Bioprinting appeared first on 3DHeals.

Richard Doerer is the Director of Technology at BioModel3D a Detroit based start-up segmenting and printing vascular, orthopedic, craniomaxillofacial and veterinarian models. He also is the Additive and Engineering Manager for Adient, LLC in automotive/airline seating in Plymouth, MI. Richard brings 25 plus years in product development, management and entrepreneurial start-ups that strived to create value by commercializing innovation, creativity and problem–solving for customers. He is a Yale MFA and Michigan State University MBA graduate.

Jenny: One quote that represents you.

Richard: “Learning never exhausts the mind”-Leonardo da Vinci. I just finished reading Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson. I was amazed at his sense of observation of the flow of water in nature in the 1500’s. This led to his observations, dissections and drawings of the flow of blood from the human heart. This proved the heart was the center of the blood circulation system. It was widely believed in the 1500’s that the liver was the center of the blood system. Lifelong learning never stops.

Jenny: Tell us a little about yourself. (Where are you from originally? Where are you located? What are you working on?)

Richard: Originally from Ann Arbor, MI. I moved to the Connecticut/NYC area in 1982 and lived on the East Coast till 2000.  I originally started 3D printing, SLA, back in the late 1990’s for consumer products. Around 2010, I started printing for the automotive industry for automotive seating and concept cars. Currently, I am the Director of Technology for BioModel3D.com a start-up medical 3D printing company in Metro Detroit. Also, I am the Additive/Engineering Manager for Adient, LLC in automotive seating product development.

Jenny: What made you decide to become a 3DHEALS community manager?

Richard: There was a void in a sense of community in 3D printing for healthcare in Detroit. There are many universities, companies and investors involved in 3D printing technology for healthcare but we seemed to be in separate silos. Plus, I always admired the missions of 3DHEALS and saw an opportunity to work together to create a 3D printing healthcare community in Metro-Detroit.

Jenny: What do you think of innovations in healthcare 3D printing or bioprinting?

Richard: There have been great strides in bioprinting in the Detroit area. For example, Dr. Scott Hollister, formerly, of the University of Michigan was among the first to 3D print a bioresorbable tracheal splint into the bronchus of a 20-month-old baby to support his airway.  Other labs are working on patient specific scaffolding, which allows surgeons to perform craniofacial soft tissue reconstruction in pediatric and adult patients.  

Jenny: What do you hope to see in the next five years?

Richard: Well, I think we are beginning to see the acceptance and necessity of 3D printed models by Medicare and the FDA. Medicare has several CPT codes for medical models which should go into practice in 2020.  This is huge, at our start-up BioModel3D, the first questions hospital systems ask us is who is going to pay for this? 10 years? Hopefully 3D printing of patient specific drugs and FDA guidelines to establish a regulatory framework to govern patient specific device manufacturing for non-traditional/traditional manufacturers will be firmly established.

Jenny: If you have done 3D printing before, what have you made/designed? (Photos if available, preferably in healthcare application)

Richard: Our company BioModel3D segments and prints vascular, orthopedic, craniomaxillofacial and veterinarian models. (Imagesare shownn in this interview.)

Jenny: Most of our community managers are entrepreneurial and adventurous, what risks/adventures have you taken that you’d like to share with us?

Richard: I’ve done a number of start-ups. One successful, the others failed. After graduating from the art school at Yale, I was asked if I could teach a course on model building for architecture and art students at Yale.  I agreed and shortly afterward launched a product development company. We were initially customer financed and later both customer and self-financed. We focused on models/products for architects, consumer products and demonstrative evidence for litigation.

Jenny: Any hopes or regrets?

Richard: No, but we learned if you have a huge scary opportunity as a start-up, go for it 110%. Don’t worry about the money. And if people are not eager to join your start-up it’s probably not going to work.

Jenny: Who would you like to find and to include in the 3DHEALS community you are building?

Richard: We would like to include universities doing research in bio-engineering, dental labs & dentists, hospitals that are or looking to print, specialists in vascular and orthopedics, investors, medical software companies, Women in 3D Printing-Detroit Chapter, 3D printing companies, law firms, insurance companies, entrepreneurial events, shared workspace hosts, MEDC, additive recruiters and school aged children in Detroit.

Jenny: What would you like to accomplish with this new 3DHEALS community in the future?

Richard: To drive awareness of the immense talent in Detroit and surrounding areas in 3D printing technology in healthcare. This community is here to support you and your company’s growth.

Jenny: What do you think about the innovation environment (for health tech or for general technology) in your city?

Richard: The innovation environment for healthcare in Detroit and surrounding areas is great. For example, Wayne State University, University of Michigan and Michigan State University are all leaders in bio-engineering research and bio-medical studies. Beaumont Hospital and Henry Ford Innovation Institute are leaders in cardiovascular printing technology. (Jenny): What can be done to improve it? Automotive has a standing happy hour/networking meeting every month at the Detroit Metro Airport. People in additive from Ford, Stratasys, Oerlikon, Chrysler, Adient, Siemens, GM and others all show up on a regular basis to talk shop. We can establish a similar venue(s) for innovation in healthcare in Detroit.

Jenny: What are you most proud of about your city?

Richard: The overwhelming entrepreneurial spirit in Detroit and the metro-Detroit area. Metro-Detroit including Ann Arbor, E. Lansing, and surrounding counties. Recently, I met an advertising firm that was moving to Detroit from Atlanta for entrepreneurial opportunities and investors. They saw opportunities besides automotive. It’s less expensive to live in Detroit and there are many incubator and accelerator programs in the city..

Jenny: What are you most proud of about the innovation community in your city?

Richard: The automotive industry drives a great deal of interest from the 3D printing companies.3D printing companies have a significant presence in Detroit and it will be great to get them more involved in healthcare.

Jenny: What do you think are the top priorities in healthcare innovations for your city/community?

Richard: I think I will find this out from the voice of the community. It is important to understand the behavior of the customer/community and make sure we are fulfilling their needs.

Jenny: What do you hope to accomplish through your role as the 3DHEALS community manager?

Richard: To drive an awareness to the various 3D healthcare groups and students that this community is a resource to help them find solutions to their needs.  And let students know that there are enormous opportunities to stay in Detroit and launch their start-ups in healthcare technologies using 3D printing.

Jenny: What do you do for fun?

Richard: Build electronic props based on monster and horror films. Go to street festivals with friends.

Jenny: Anything else?

Richard: Read, walk my dog Dexter.

The post Interview: Richard Doerer, Detroit, Michigan appeared first on 3DHeals.

Yi Arnold, Ph.D. is the Director of Business Development and R&D of Theradaptive. Theradaptive is a regenerative medicine startup that has developed a platform for targeted delivery of potent regenerative therapeutics for tissue regeneration. Theradaptive is combining the latest 3D printing technology with its biologic delivery platform to design implants mimicking the native ECM for better and faster tissue repair and regeneration. Current programs include long bone repair, spine fusion, dental & CMF repair, and osteochondral repair. Prior to Theradaptive, Yi was a VP at Esco Venture, a Singapore-based Venture Capital group and a Director at Osiris Therapeutics, managing their wound care portfolio. Yi started her industry career at Kinetic Concepts, Inc. and has since developed and brought to market 3 human tissue-based products for wound repair, estimated at over $100 million yearly revenue. Yi holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering, a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering and received her postdoc training at Yale and Columbia University. Yi currently resides in Ellicott City, MD with her husband and two girls. She loves to run marathons in her spare time and is excited to be running the BMW Berlin Marathon in 2019! Yi will be speaking at our upcoming DC event. 

Jenny: When was the first encounter you had with 3D printing? What was that experience like? What were you thinking at that moment?

Yi Arnold: I think it was a couple of years ago, I saw a news story on TV mentioning a father who bought a 3D printer at home to print different kinds of prosthetic arms and hands for his child who lost his arm in a car accident. The printer was only a couple of hundred dollars. He even printed out a Spiderman design – I remembered. It melted my heart and I thought that was really cool. It also got me wondering: when can the printer print something sterile and biological so we could use it inside a human being?   

Jenny: What inspired you to start your journey in 3D printing (bio-fabrication/bio-printing)?

Yi Arnold: My colleague Dr. Todd Heil is the 3d printing guru on the team, from whom I learn a little bit about 3D printing every day. My current company, Theradaptive, is using 3D printing to enable highly targeted biologic delivery to create scaffolds for protein and cell delivery for orthopedic regeneration and sports medicine. Our current product development focuses on 3D printed bioactive tissue substitutes that are custom-designed, have mechanical and physical properties similar to native tissue, and can safely deliver the most potent growth factors and cells, for tissue repair and regeneration.

Jenny: 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.

Yi Arnold: Patients. Our ultimate goal is to 3D print a tissue patch, or a filler, or a structure that custom fits a patient’s defect area perfectly.

Jenny: What motivates you the most for your work?

Yi Arnold: My previous job at Osiris allowed me to visit the OR and physician’s offices where patients undergo treatment and follow-ups. It was very rewarding to hear a story of a 68-year-old veteran who was finally able to walk because our product helped to heal a 49-year-old wound on his leg.

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

Yi Arnold: We have to overcome the challenges that small companies face when raising capital and navigating the FDA regulatory landscape.

Jenny: 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)?

Yi Arnold: A universal bioink development for various therapeutic areas and its readiness for mass production.

Theradaptive’s focus is to develop print cassettes with nano-particle bioactivity additives of a large variety of growth factors, known for their tissue repair and regeneration capacity. The content of these cassettes are scale-up ready, bioprintable, and remain bioactive after printing.

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

Yi Arnold:  

• • I wish nobody ever needs to go to the hospital.

• • I wish there were a switch in the brain that could easily switch the mind between work and life when needed.
  • I wish people could be transported to their destinations in seconds.

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

Yi Arnold: I would advise them to be patient and to constantly seek learning opportunities from others.

Bad advice I heard was to encourage young kids to jump between jobs every 6 months.

Jenny: If you could have a giant billboard to promote a message to millions and even billions of people in our community (i.e. healthcare 3D printing and bio-fabrication), what message would that be?

Yi Arnold: 3D printing and bio-fabrication will play a significant role in ending human suffering due to disease and injury.

Jenny: What were/was the best investment you made in 3D printing/bio-printing/bio-fabrication?

Yi Arnold: Hiring the best talent we could find in 3D printing.

Jenny: What were/was the worst investment you made in 3D printing/bio-printing/bio-fabrication?

Yi Arnold: Not moving fast enough to adopt 3D printing. 

Jenny: What was/is the biggest risk you took in your career?

Yi Arnold: I switched my major from mechanical engineering to biomedical engineering when I came to the US for grad school. Learning a brand new field in a different country, and speaking an entirely different language was not that easy in the beginning. But it turned out to be the best decision I’ve ever made in my life.

Jenny: What do you enjoy in your spare time? What are you passionate about outside of your work/3d printing?

Yi Arnold: Enjoy spending time with my two girls and doing long runs with friends. I have run 5 marathons so far and am going to run the BMW Berlin Marathon this year.  I am passionate about coaching runners and helping them to reach their goals.

Jenny: What is your favorite quote? Why?

Yi Arnold: Know thyself. How I switched my career from ME to BME, from China to the US, from basic science to industry has a bit of serendipity, but mostly through a process of self-reflection, to know what motivates me the most and keeps going at it.

Jenny: What does the word “3DHEALS” mean to you?  =)

Yi Arnold:  Use 3D printing technology to “heal” patients!

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By Norbert Sparrow, Editor in Chief at PlasticsToday, UBM Canon

This article was originally published in Plasticstoday.com on April 12, 2017.

3DHEALS2017 UCSF, April 20th, 2017

If you’re interested in the intersection of 3D printing and medical technology and happen to be near San Francisco, CA, next week, you might want to carve out some time to attend the 3DHEALS 2017 Global Conference: 3D Print Life. 3D HEALS is dedicated to the proposition that great things can happen if you bring together technologists from the start-up culture of Silicon Valley and the Bay Area and healthcare stakeholders under one roof. The organization has been around for a couple of years and has produced five successful events during that time. By reaching out to various stakeholders in the healthcare system, technology, regulatory affairs and more, “it made us realize that it takes a village to make revolution happen, and many challenges can only be overcome by a well-organized ecosystem,” write event organizers on the website. “We are hoping that by organizing this global event, 3DHEALS will contribute to fostering this burgeoning yet still fragile ecosystem.” Event organizers expect more than 400 attendees and approximately 40 speakers addressing all aspects of 3D printing in the medical space. It is scheduled for April 19 and 20 at the Mission Bay Conference Center at the University of California San Francisco. For more information, go to 3dheals.com.

Bedside printing: Who’s liable when things go horribly wrong? One aspect of the medical 3D-printing ecosystem that will become a hot topic when healthcare establishments start printing medical devices in house is the question of liability. The Legal Intelligencer published an enlightening article about this recently, “ The liability of hospitals and doctors printing 3D medical devices .” Traditionally, a manufacturer producing a 3D-printed device is subject to product liability claims. “But, when a hospital or doctor prints the device at their own facility, who is responsible if that device causes a patient harm?” writes Marion Munley, who offers well-informed insights into this looming legal conundrum. I use the word “looming” advisedly. While “bedside printers” are not yet a reality, the notion of printing personalized medical devices that conform to individual patient anatomies or other patient-specific medical needs is beyond tantalizing. The technology, for the most part, is available; what is standing in the way are the regulatory hurdles and, as Munley cogently notes, the legal thickets. For now, hospitals and doctors probably can’t be held strictly liable as suppliers of medical products, writes Munley. “They are considered to be akin to a consumer or user of a product when the product’s use is incidental to the provision of medical services, and are shielded from being held strictly liable.” The line between manufacturer and service provider will blur, however, “as hospitals and doctors begin to print 3D devices in bulk quantities and sell them to their patients,” Munley adds. Under current law, practitioners and medical establishments could be liable for negligence if a patient is injured by a defective in-house 3D-printed device, notes Munley, but that is difficult to prove. Depending on the circumstances, patients could also file a malpractice claim. There is a bit of a vacuum in this area of the law, which is concerning to Munley, “since it is widely anticipated that hospitals and doctors will significantly increase their production of 3D medical devices on-site, [and] patients injured by these 3D devices will face legal hurdles.” In the meantime, Munley concludes, the “FDA will have to continue to ensure that these products are safe, as well as properly regulated, until the law catches up with this rapidly evolving technology.”

Mark your calendar for 3DHEALS2018, April 20–21st, 2018

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By Eric Barnes, AuntMinnie.com staff writer

This article was originally published on March 22nd, 2017 on AuntMinnie.com.

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3DHEALS2017 Recap, April 20th, 2017

3D printing is revolutionizing medicine — and radiology with it. But what’s the best way to learn about this emerging discipline? The 3DHeals International Conference, being held in San Francisco on April 20, will explore 3D printing in healthcare with an eye on virtual reality, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence.
The meeting at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Mission Bay campus will feature hands-on workshops on 3D printing and talks on everything from 3D-printed organs to prosthetics to building surgical and educational models, according to organizers.

Neuroradiologist Dr. Jenny Chen.

Featuring experts from across the U.S., the meeting is aimed at anyone interested in 3D printing, but it will be especially relevant for radiologists, radiologic technologists, and surgeons who deal with the problems 3D printing addresses every day, according to 3DHeals founder and CEO Dr. Jenny Chen, a neuroradiologist and adjunct clinical instructor of radiology at Stanford University.
Radiology as prime beneficiary
3D printing is a natural adaptation for radiologists, according to Chen.
“On a daily basis, radiologists scan patients from the physical world into the digital world, review the digital data, and then give some kind of cognitive information to take care of them in the physical world,” she told AuntMinnie.com. “Now with 3D printing we can finally convert the physical data into a 3D object that surgeons can hold in their hand.”
For applications such as pediatric congenital heart disease, surgeons can plan their interventions holding the heart in their hand — something with enormous implications for patient care that wasn’t possible before 3D printing, she said.
“All of that cognitive information is now embedded in that physical object … and there is increasing evidence that having that data available for planning is reducing operating time,” improving outcomes, saving money, and wielding enormous effects on patients’ lives, she said.
3D printing a surgical guide is another application with enormous potential for radiology to cut costs and improve outcomes, Chen said. Exactly what and how the new technologies will reshape healthcare is the subject of many clinical trials, both currently underway and to come.
https://vimeo.com/168270199
Experience in a hurry
One key dynamic in medicine today is that older, more experienced surgeons benefit from a wealth of insight and experience they can use to, for example, “freehand the perfect incision and do the perfect surgical procedure,” Chen said. But with 3D-printed surgical guides, younger doctors with less experience who are still perfecting their art or have lower baseline skill levels can now perform better, helping to satisfy market demand.
“We’re an aging population,” she said. Without 3D printing, “we can’t meet the demand.”
And of course, it’s not just radiology that benefits from 3D printing. Specialties from orthopedics to cardiology are using computers and medical imaging to advance their fields.
“One of the benefits of this conference is that we combined all of the specialties in healthcare together to have a cross-pollination effect,” she said.
For example, radiology has lessons to learn from dentistry, which has a wealth of experience in 3D models and will have its own track at the conference.
In all, there will be 50 speakers at 3DHeals, including the following:

• Dr. Sanjay Prabhu, co-director of the SimPeds 3D printing service at Boston Children’s Hospital, will lead a medical hands-on workshop. Prabhu has a wealth of experience in 3D simulation, and his facility has a wide range of 3D printers for metal, plastic, and robotic and laboratory applications, Chen said.
• Justin Ryan, PhD, from Phoenix Children’s Hospital is part of a nationwide study of congenital pediatric heart disease.
• Dr. Lisa Lattanza, professor and chief of the division of hand, elbow, and upper extremity surgery at UCSF, is one of three prominent orthopedic surgeons speaking at the meeting. Using 3D printing, Lattanza performed successful elbow surgery on a patient who lacked usable arms on both sides and now has the use of one arm thanks to the life-transforming surgery, Chen said.
• Keith Murphy, chairman and CEO of Organovo, is among the pioneers of bioprinting 3D organs and one of several bioprinting leaders attending the event. “Research is ongoing” in bioprinting and “the regulatory burden is extremely high,” Chen said. “But all the science fiction will be coming true. We are innovating at an exponential rate.”

The multidisciplinary nature of the conference is aimed at eliminating the silos to which technology researchers are often confined, according to Chen. The best innovation doesn’t confine itself to a specific field, but rather approaches research from a problem-solving focus, endeavoring across disciplines to solve one critical small problem at a time.
“There’s no way the tech people can solve it without practicing medicine themselves, and on the other hand, clinicians aren’t well-educated on what’s happening in the tech world,” she said.
Innovating across specialties and combining clinical issues with technologies such as virtual reality, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence (AI) is what drives progress, Chen said. AI in particular will be key to making 3D printing and stereolithography (STL) files easier to produce.
For radiologists looking to keep their skills relevant in a highly automated future, 3D printing is a great place to start, Chen added.
“Everyone is responsible for their own future,” she said.
Registration fees for the meeting have been intentionally minimized for medical students ($50) and residents ($150), and they are reasonable for physicians ($450) as well, Chen said. For more information or to register, click here.

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