GREENVILLE, Ind. (June 3, 2019) – Two high-tech companies have teamed up to develop the first 3D printer capable of manufacturing human tissue in the microgravity condition of space. Techshot Inc., a commercial developer and operator of spaceflight equipment; and nScrypt, a manufacturer of the world’s most advanced industrial 3D bioprinters and electronics printers, developed the 3D BioFabrication Facility (BFF). The BFF will use adult human cells (such as stem or pluripotent cells) and adult tissue-derived proteins as its bioink to create viable tissue. A small bio-ink startup, Bioficial Organs, also was consulted on the project. It will launch to the International Space Station in July aboard the SpaceX CRS-18 cargo mission from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
Though the prospect of manufacturing hearts and other organs via a 3D bioprinter is likely a decade away, the July launch is a significant milestone in that quest. The initial phase for BFF, which could last about two years, will involve creating test prints of cardiac-like tissue of increasing thickness. The next phase, where heart patches are manufactured in space and evaluated on the ground (under a microscope and perhaps in small animals such as rats) could last through approximately 2024.
Ultimately, long-term success of BFF could lead to reducing the current shortage of donor organs and eliminate the requirement that someone must first die in order for another person to receive a new heart, other organ or tissue.
Why produce human tissue in space?
Though researchers have had some success with 3D printing bones and cartilage on Earth, the manufacturing of soft human tissue (such as blood vessels and muscle) has been difficult. On Earth, when attempting to print with soft, easily flowing biomaterials, tissues collapse under their own weight – resulting in little more than a puddle. But if these same materials are produced in the microgravity environment of space, the 3D-printed structures will maintain their shapes.
Once printed in space, the structures will be placed in a cell-culturing system that strengthen them over time, to the point where they become viable, self-supporting tissues that will remain solid once back in Earth’s gravity.
Techshot President and CEO John Vellinger said the July launch of BFF is the culmination of more than four years of research and planning. “The concept of developing tissue or an organ in space with a 3D bioprinter has been with us for years,” he said. “From the technological and biological perspectives, making it real has been a painstaking process of experiments and testing. To see this coming together is an amazing thing for the team, as well as for all of medical science.”
For nScrypt CEO Ken Church, Ph.D., BFF’s long-term potential is very personal. Twenty-four years ago Church’s daughter was born with one lung. She survived and today lives an active and full life despite her missing lung. But Church remembers thinking aloud: “I wish we could just make her another lung.”
Today, the prospect of making a lung is not so farfetched. “Assembling a human lung or other organ is still years away, but it is no longer science fiction.” Church said. “BFF is the roadmap for getting there. And this BFF team knows how to follow that map. I have no doubt someday BFF will provide someone like my daughter with a second lung.”
BFF success can lead to numerous medical breakthroughs
Long-term success of BFF as a human organ manufacturing system presents several potential medical breakthroughs, including:
- Reducing the organ donor shortage (currently 113,000 people are on organ transplant waiting lists).
- Creating patient-specific replacement tissues or patches (by creating tissues/patches from the patients’ very own stem and pluripotent cells).
- The possibility of transplant recipients receiving organs comprised of their own stem cells, thus reducing the likelihood of rejection and reducing long-term costs associated with a lifetime of anti-rejection drugs (and, perhaps, additional transplants).
- Eliminating the requirement that someone must first die in order for another person to receive a new heart or other organ.
About Techshot Inc.
Techshot Inc., has been developing new technologies for the aerospace, defense and medical industries since 1988. Its devices have flown aboard parabolic-flight aircraft, sub-orbital rockets, space shuttles, the Northrop Grumman Cygnus, the SpaceX Cargo Dragon and the International Space Station. Its Space Act Agreement with NASA permits the company to commercially operate its equipment aboard the station. Since 2015 the Techshot-designed and built Bone Densitometer has been conducting X-rays of mice in space for biopharma companies such as Novartis and Eli Lilly. Its Multi-use Variable-gravity Platform has been aboard the station since April 2018. Techshot is headquartered in Greenvilleand maintains an office at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. www.Techshot.space
nScrypt: Founded in 2002 and headquartered in Orlando, Florida, nScrypt designs and manufactures award-winning, next-generation, high-precision microdispensing and direct digital manufacturing equipment and solutions for industrial applications, with unmatched accuracy and flexibility. Serving the printed electronics, electronics packaging, solar cell metallization, communications, printed antenna, life science, chemical/pharmaceutical, defense, space, and 3D printing industries, its equipment and solutions are widely used by the military, academic and research institutes, government agencies and national labs, and private companies.
nScrypt’s BAT, the world’s first commercially available bioprinter (developed under a contract with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) – won R&D Magazine’s 2003 Top 100 award. www.nScrypt.com
GREENVILLE, Ind. Kampuni mbili za teknolojia ya hali ya juu zimeungana ili kuendeleza printer ya kwanza ya 3D inayoweza kutengeneza tishu za binadamu katika hali ya microgravity ya nafasi. TechShot, kampuni ya teknolojia ya teknolojia ya teknolojia ya teknolojia ya teknolojia ya teknolojia ya teknolojia ya teknolojia ya teknolojia ya teknolojia ya teknolojia ya teknolojia ya teknolojia ya teknolojia ya teknolojia ya teknolojia ya teknolojia ya teknolojia ya teknolojia ya teknolojia ya teknolojia ya teknolojia ya teknolojia ya teknolojia ya teknolojia ya teknolojia ya teknolojia ya teknolojia ya teknolojia ya teknolojia ya teknolojia ya teknolojia ya teknolojia ya teknolojia ya teknolojia ya teknolojia ya teknolojia ya teknolojia ya teknolojia ya teknolojia ya teknolojia ya teknolojia ya teknolojia ya teknolojia. BFF itatumia seli za binadamu za watu wazima (kama vile seli za shina au pluripotent) na protini zinazotokana na tishu za watu wazima kama bioink yake ili kuunda tishu inayofaa. Mwanzoni ndogo ya bio-ink, Viungo vya Bioficial, pia vilishauriana juu ya mradi huo. Ndege hiyo itawasili kwenye kituo cha anga cha kimataifa cha ISS mwezi Julai, ikisafirishwa na chombo cha SpaceX CRS-18 kutoka kituo cha jeshi la anga cha Cape Canaveral, Florida. Ingawa uwezekano wa kutengeneza moyo na viungo vingine kupitia bioprinter ya 3D ni uwezekano wa miaka kumi mbali, uzinduzi wa Julai ni hatua muhimu katika utafutaji huo. Katika hatua ya kwanza ya BFF, ambayo inaweza kudumu miaka miwili, itajumuisha kuunda uchapishaji wa mtihani wa tishu kama ya moyo ya unene unaoongezeka. Katika hatua inayofuata, ambapo vipande vya moyo hutengenezwa katika nafasi na kutathminiwa ardhini (chini ya darubini na labda katika wanyama wadogo kama panya) inaweza kudumu hadi karibu 2024. "Mwishowe, mafanikio ya muda mrefu ya BFF yanaweza kusababisha kupunguza upungufu wa sasa wa viungo vya wafadhili na kuondoa mahitaji ya mtu lazima kwanza afe ili mtu mwingine apate moyo mpya, kiungo kingine au tishu.""" Kwa nini kutengeneza tishu za kibinadamu angani? Ingawa watafiti wamepata mafanikio ya kuchapisha mifupa na cartilage kwa 3D duniani, utengenezaji wa tishu laini za binadamu (kama vile mishipa ya damu na misuli) imekuwa ngumu. Duniani, wakati wa kujaribu kuchapisha na laini, kwa urahisi mtiririko biomaterials, tishu kuanguka chini ya uzito wao wenyewe <unk> kusababisha kidogo zaidi ya kidimbwi. Lakini ikiwa vifaa hivyo vinazalishwa katika mazingira ya microgravity ya anga, muundo uliochapishwa kwa 3D utahifadhi maumbo yao. Baada ya kuchapishwa katika nafasi, miundo hiyo itawekwa katika mfumo wa kukuza seli ambayo itaimarisha kwa muda, hadi hatua ambapo itakuwa hai, tishu za kujitegemea ambazo zitabaki imara mara moja nyuma katika mvuto wa Dunia. "Mkurugenzi Mtendaji wa TechShot, John Vellinger, alisema: ""Kuzindua BFF mnamo Julai ni kilele cha zaidi ya miaka minne ya utafiti na mipango." "Wazo la kukuza tishu au kiungo katika nafasi na bioprinter ya 3D limekuwa nasi kwa miaka mingi", alisema. <unk> Kutoka kwa mtazamo wa kiteknolojia na kibiolojia, kuifanya iwe halisi imekuwa mchakato mgumu wa majaribio na upimaji. "Kuweka ""mfano"" wa majaribio haya ni jambo la kushangaza kwa timu, na pia kwa sayansi yote ya matibabu. kwa mtendaji mkuu wa nScrypt Ken Church, PhD, uwezo wa muda mrefu wa BFF ni wa kibinafsi sana." Miaka 24 iliyopita binti ya Church alizaliwa akiwa na mapafu moja tu. Aliokoka na leo anaishi maisha yenye shughuli nyingi na yenye kuridhisha licha ya kupungukiwa na mapafu yake. "Church anakumbuka akifikiria kwa sauti: ""Ningependa tu tuweze kumfanyia mapafu mengine."" - Mfano wa ""Mwanamke wa kwanza"" na ""Mwanamke wa kwanza"" katika Biblia." "Kujenga mapafu ya binadamu au viungo vingine bado ni miaka mbali, lakini si hadithi ya kubuniwa ya kisayansi tena", alisema Church. BFF ni ramani ya barabara ya kufika huko. BFFs wanajua jinsi ya kufuata ramani. "Hakuna shaka kwamba siku moja BFF itatoa mtu kama binti yangu mapafu ya pili. ""Ufanisi wa BFF unaweza kusababisha mafanikio mengi ya matibabu.""" - Kuunda tishu za badala za mgonjwa maalum au patches (kwa kuunda tishu / patches kutoka kwa seli za shina na pluripotent za mgonjwa mwenyewe). - Uwezekano wa wapokeaji wa kupandikiza kupokea viungo vilivyoundwa na seli zao wenyewe za shina, hivyo kupunguza uwezekano wa kukataliwa na kupunguza gharama za muda mrefu zinazohusiana na maisha ya dawa za kupambana na kukataliwa (na, labda, kupandikiza ziada). - Kuondoa mahitaji ya kwamba mtu lazima kwanza afe ili mtu mwingine apate moyo mpya au kiungo kingine. TechShot imekuwa ikiendeleza teknolojia mpya kwa ajili ya anga, ulinzi na viwanda vya matibabu tangu 1988. Vifaa vya SpaceX vimeendeshwa kwenye ndege za parabolic, roketi za chini ya mzunguko, ndege za anga, Northrop Grumman Cygnus, na kituo cha anga cha kimataifa. Mkataba wa Sheria ya Anga na NASA inaruhusu kampuni hiyo kuendesha vifaa vyake kibiashara kwenye kituo hicho. Tangu mwaka 2015, TechShot imekuwa ikifanya uchunguzi wa X-ray wa panya katika anga kwa ajili ya makampuni ya dawa kama vile Novartis na Eli Lilly. Kituo cha Multi-Use Variable Gravity Platform (VVGP) kimekuwa kwenye kituo cha anga tangu Aprili 2018. Techshot ina makao makuu yake katika Greenville na ina ofisi katika Kituo cha Anga cha Kennedy huko Florida. NScrypt, iliyoanzishwa mnamo 2002 na makao yake makuu huko Orlando, Florida, inabuni na kutengeneza vifaa vya utengenezaji wa dijiti wa usahihi wa juu na usahihi wa hali ya juu na ufumbuzi wa matumizi ya viwanda, kwa usahihi na kubadilika bila kulinganishwa. Inatumika kwa vifaa vya elektroniki vilivyopigwa, ufungaji wa elektroniki, metalishi wa seli za jua, mawasiliano, antena iliyochapishwa, sayansi ya maisha, kemikali, dawa, ulinzi, anga, na viwanda vya uchapishaji wa 3D, vifaa na suluhisho zake hutumiwa sana na taasisi za kijeshi, za kitaaluma na za utafiti, mashirika ya serikali na maabara ya kitaifa, na makampuni ya kibinafsi. BAT ya Scrypt, bioprinter ya kwanza ya kibiashara ulimwenguni (iliyotengenezwa chini ya mkataba na Shirika la Miradi ya Utafiti wa Juu wa Ulinzi) ilishinda tuzo ya R&D Magazine ya 2003 Top 100. www.nscript.com