Posted on

Robot Skin 3D Printer Close to First-in-Human Clinical Trials

In just two years a robotic device that prints a patient’s own skin cells directly onto a burn or wound could have its first-in-human clinical trials. The 3D bioprinting system for intraoperative skin regeneration developed by Australian biotech start-up Inventia Life Science has gained new momentum thanks to major investments from the Australian government and two powerful new partners, world-renowned burns expert Fiona Wood and leading bioprinting researcher Gordon Wallace.

Codenamed Ligō from the Latin “to bind”, the system is expected to revolutionize wound repairs by delivering multiple cell types and biomaterials rapidly and precisely, creating a new layer of skin where it has been damaged. The novel system is slated to replace current wound healing methods that simply attempt to repair the skin, and is being developed by Inventia Skin, a subsidiary of Inventia Life Science.

“When we started Inventia Life Science, our vision was to create a technology platform with the potential to bring enormous benefit to human health. We are pleased to see how fast that vision is progressing alongside our fantastic collaborators. This Federal Government support will definitely help us accelerate even faster,” said Dr. Julio Ribeiro, CEO, and co-founder of Inventia.

Seeking to support Australia’s biomedical and medical technology sector, the Australian government announced it will invest AU$1 million (US$723,085) to supercharge the Ligõ 3D bioprinting system for regenerating skin. The project is one of 21 initiatives to receive support from the Federal Government’s BioMedTech Horizons (BMTH) program, operated by MTPConnect, a non-profit organization aiming to accelerate the rate of growth of the medical technologies, biotechnologies, and pharmaceuticals sector in Australia.

Late in July 2020, Australia’s Federal Health Minister, Greg Hunt announced that the program’s funding is expected to move the device faster into first-in-human clinical trials. Separately, the team also received funding from the Medical Research Future Fund Stem Cell Therapies Mission to collaborate with stem cell expert Pritinder Kaur from Curtin University, in Perth, to use the Ligō device to deliver stem cell-based products that could improve skin regeneration.

According to Inventia, the skin is the first point of injury in accidents and some diseases and, when significantly damaged, it heals slowly, usually leaving a scar. Moreover, throughout the regeneration process, it is open to infection, a major problem in the body’s first protective barrier, and a good enough reason to find new ways to speed up the healing process.

Focusing energies on creating a robot capable of printing tiny droplets containing the patient’s skin cells and biomaterials directly on the wound gave Inventia the potential to recreate functional and aesthetically normal skin. Moreover, the researchers behind the Ligõ technology suggest this can be achieved in a single procedure in the operating theatre, reducing treatment cost and hospital stays, and minimizing the risk of infection.

The device uses Inventia’s patented technology, which was already successfully featured in its RASTRUM platform for lab-based medical research and drug discovery. By taking this core technology into the clinic through the Ligō robot, the company expects to break new ground with some of Australia’s leaders in skin regeneration.

Researchers from Inventia Life Science at the Translational Research Initiative for Cell Engineering and Printing (TRICEP) at Wollongong. (Image courtesy of TRICEP)

Researchers from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES) at the University of Wollongong, in Australia, will also lend their internationally renowned expertise in bioinks to develop the new 3D bioprinting system to treat burns during surgery. Led by ACES Director Gordon Wallace, the researchers will provide critical input in the bioprinter and bioink development process. This news comes as no surprise as the ACES team already had a strong working relationship with Inventia.

“ACES is at the forefront of building new approaches to 3D printing, and this project will draw on this significant success we have had in this space in recent years,” Wallace said. “3D printing has emerged as the most exciting advance in fabrication in decades, and I’m excited to continue to build our local capabilities in this area to establish a new, innovative and sustainable industry for the Illawarra [a region in the Australian state of New South Wales]. Being part of this skin regeneration project will help to put Wollongong on the map for the commercial manufacture of bioprinting technologies.”

Leading bioprinting researcher Gordon Wallace. (Image courtesy of the ARC Center for Excellence for Electromaterials Science)

For project partner Fiona Wood, a world-leading burns specialist and surgeon, and Director of the Burns Service of Western Australia, this is not the first time that she has looked towards bioengineering to help her patients. In the early 90s, the expert pioneered the innovative “spray-on skin” technique, which greatly reduces permanent scarring in burns victims, and came to notice in 2002, when the largest proportion of survivors from the Bali bombings arrived at Royal Perth Hospital.

“The combination of these grants is an excellent example of the way the Medical Research Future Fund is being applied across the continuum of translational research to commercialization, leading to better patient outcomes,” commented Wood.

Fiona Wood at the Burns Service of Western Australia. (Image credit Fiona Woods Foundation)

Burns are the fourth most common type of trauma worldwide, with an estimated 11 million burned patients treated every year worldwide, and over 300,000 deaths resulting from serious wounds. In Australia alone Wood’s foundation reported that 200,000 people suffer burns annually, costing the Australian community over AU$150 million per year. Burn injuries are horrific and they present complex problems for both the patient and clinicians to deal with, with a road to recovery beyond easy to tackle. Inventia Skin expects bioprinting technology will be a game-changer in wound medicine. Moreover, the combined expertise of leading specialists in bioprinting and burn wounds, along with funding and support from the local government could lead to one of the most innovative 3D bioprinting systems to treat burns during surgery, and best of all, it could be available in 2022.

The post Robot Skin 3D Printer Close to First-in-Human Clinical Trials appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing.

Posted on

3D Printing News Briefs: March 9, 2019

We’re taking care of business first in today’s 3D Printing News Briefs, and then moving on to education. Optomec has announced two new additions to its LENS series, and CRP Technology is introducing a new commercial strategy for its Windform composite materials. HP India is building a new Center of Excellence for 3D Printing, while the South Korean government continues its investment in the technology. The GE Additive Education Program is now accepting applications for 2019-2020, and a Philadelphia-based university and health system has integrated Ultimaker 3D printers into its teaching curriculum. Speaking of health, Sweden is looking into 3D printing food for the elderly.

Optomec’s New LENS Systems

This week, production-grade metal 3D printer supplier Optomec announced that it was releasing two new Directed Energy Deposition (DED) 3D printers in its Laser Engineered Net Shaping (LENS) Classic System Series: the CS 600 and the CS 800 Controlled Atmosphere (CA) DED Systems. Both of the systems are configurable, and are designed to maximize the process build envelope, while at the same time lowering the system footprint and chamber volume. They have CA chambers that make it possible to process both non-reactive and reactive metals, and are both compatible with the company’s latest generation LENS deposition head.

“These new systems come packed with next-generation DED components all born from signature Optomec know-how and built to provide affordable, high-quality metal additive manufacturing capabilities for industry’s most demanding requirements. The LENS CS 600 and CS 800 systems represent the latest in DED processing from precision deposition to cladding applications and extend our product portfolio to continue to provide high-value metal additive manufacturing solutions,” said Tom Cobbs, Optomec’s LENS product manager.

The first customer shipments of the CS 600 and the CS 800 CA systems have already begun this year.

New Commercial Strategy for Windform Materials

CRP Technology has for years made components and also sold its Windform composite materials. Now the company has decided to revise its commercial strategy for the materials: from now on, they will no longer be sold to service bureaus for the toll-manufacturing of 3D printing components. However, the materials will continue to be sold to companies that produce their own components, while CRP Technology and CRP USA will continue to offer support for service and assistance in producing Windform parts.

“The change in the strategy of CRP Technology is because we believe we can ensure the highest quality in the manufacture of 3D printed components; indeed the increase in production capacity -both in Europe and in the United States- will guarantee the volumes necessary to satisfy any request from our customers based all over the world, in compliance with the high standards of service and quality that has always been a distinctive element of CRP Technology and CRP USA’s activities,” CRP Technology told 3DPrint.com in an email.

HP Building Center of Excellence for 3D Printing in India

HP introduced its Jet Fusion 4200 3D Printing solutions to India last year, and is now planning to build a Center of Excellence (CoE) for 3D Printing in Andhra Pradesh, which is the country’s seventh-largest state. This week, the company signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Andhra Pradesh government to build the CoE, which will give small and medium businesses (SMBs) and startups in the state the opportunity to learn more about the benefits of adopting 3D printing. HP India will be the main knowledge provider for the CoE, while the Andhra Pradesh Innovation Society (APIS) will enable accreditations and certifications and provide infrastructure support, and the Andhra Pradesh Economic Development Board (APEDB) will encourage and drive public sector enterprises and government departments to use the CoE.

“Manufacturing in Andhra Pradesh has great potential as a lot of demand is slated to come from domestic consumption,” said J. Krishna Kishore, the CEO of APEDB. “Andhra Pradesh’s impetus in automotive, electronics and aerospace makes technologies like 3D printing market-ready.”

South Korea Continues to Invest in 3D Printing 

For the last couple of years, the government of South Korea has been investing in 3D printing, and 2019 is no different. The country’s Ministry of Science and ICT announced that it would be spending 59.3 billion won (US $52.7 million) this year – up nearly 17% from its 2018 investment – in order to continue developing 3D printing expertise to help nurture the industry. According to government officials, 27.73 billion of this will be allocated to further development of 3D printing materials technology, and some of the budget will go towards helping the military make 3D printed components, in addition to helping the medical sector make 3D printed rehab devices.

“3D printing is a core sector that can create innovation in manufacturing and new markets. The ministry will support development by working with other related ministries and strengthen the basis of the industry,” said Yong Hong-taek, an ICT ministry official.

GE Additive Education Program Accepting Applications

In 2017, GE Additive announced that it would be investing $10 million in the GE Additive Education Program (AEP), an educational initiative designed to foster and develop students’ skills in additive manufacturing. To date, the global program has donated over 1,400 polymer 3D printers to 1,000 schools in 30 different countries, and announced this week that it is now accepting applications for the 2019-2020 cycle from primary and secondary schools. While in previous years the AEP also awarded metal 3D printers to universities, that’s not the case this time around.

“This year’s education program will focus only on primary and secondary schools,” said Jason Oliver, President & CEO of GE Additive. “The original purpose of our program is to accelerate awareness and education of 3D printing among students – building a pipeline of talent that understands 3D design and printing when they enter the workplace. We already enjoy some wonderful working relationships with universities and colleges, so this year we have decided to focus our efforts on younger students.”

The deadline for online AEP applications is Monday, April 1st, 2019. Packages include a Polar Cloud premium account, a Polar Cloud enabled 3D printer from either Dremel, Flashforge, or Monoprice, rolls of filament, and – new this round – learning and Tinkercad software resources from Autodesk. Check out the video below to learn about GE Additive’s ‘Anything Factory’ brand campaign, the heart of which was formed by a young student who had just discovered 3D printing and what it’s capable of creating…this is, of course, the purpose behind AEP.

Ultimaker 3D Printers Integrated into Medical Teaching Curriculum

Dr. Robert Pugliese and Dr. Bon Ku of Philadelphia’s Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health wanted to better prepare their students for real-world hospital challenges, and so decided to integrate Ultimaker 3D printers into the system’s Health Design Lab. The Lab is used for multiple medical and educational applications, from ultrasound training and cardiology to ENT surgery and high-risk obstetrics, and students are able to work with radiologists on real patient cases by helping to produce accurate anatomic models. The Lab houses a total of 14 Ultimaker 3D printers, including the Ultimaker 2+ Extended, the Ultimaker 3, and the Ultimaker S5, and the models 3D printed there help enhance patient care and improve surgical planning, as well as teach students how to segment critical features and interpret medical scan data.

“When we introduce these models to the patients their eyes get big and they ask a lot of questions, it helps them to understand what the complexity of their case really is. It’s just so much better to have the patient on the same page and these models really help bring that reality to them,” said Dr. Amy Mackey, Vice Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Jefferson’s Abington Hospital.

3D Printing Food for the Elderly in Sweden

Swedish care homes hope to make pureéd chicken indistinguishable from a drumstick [Image: EYEEM]

If you’ve attended a meal at a nursing home, or care home, then you know the food that’s served is not overly appetizing. This is because elderly people can also just have a more difficult time eating regular food. Roughly 8% of adults in Sweden have trouble chewing or swallowing their food, which can easily cause them to become malnourished. That’s why the Halmstad municipality on the country’s west coast wants to use 3D printing to stimulate these residents’ appetites, which will be accomplished by reconstituting soft, puréed food like chicken and broccoli to make it look more realistic.

Richard Asplund, a former head chef at the luxury Falkenbergs Strandbad hotel who’s now the head of Halmstad’s catering department, said, “When you find it hard to chew and swallow, the food that exists today doesn’t look very appetising.

“So the idea is to make something more aesthetic to look at, to make it look good to eat by recreating the original form of the food.”

The state innovation body Rise is coordinating the project, which is currently in the pre-study phase and plans to serve the first 3D printed meals in Halmstad and Helsingborg by the end of this year.

Discuss these stories and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts in the Facebook comments below.

Posted on

Raja Sekhar Upputuri of think3D On 3D Printing’s Potential in India

Raja Sekhar Upputuri co-founded think3D with classmate Prudhvi Reddy in 2014. They now have a full-service 3D printing firm that sells hardware, is a 3D printing service bureau, offers 3D scanning services and does 3D printing design services. The company is a one-stop shop for Indian firms who wish to enter the 3D printing market. In many other cases, resellers and 3D printing services are very separate affairs and many 3D printing services don’t offer scanning or design services. With their one-stop-shop approach think3D is trying to position itself as the one sole 3D printing partner for manufacturing, automotive and medical companies in the region.
We reported previously how the company received $6 million USD from the province of Andhra Pradesh to set up a 3D Printing and Design Facility in Vizag. This center is part of a medical device park and the focus is on using 3D printing for medical applications.  We also wrote their project with India’s Devnar Foundation for the Blind,  their help with developing metal 3D printer, and their mobile app for Android. We’re very excited about the potential of 3D printing in India. Traditionally idea has been strong in software and services while China has been paramount in manufacturing. When these three things collide in 3D printing can Indian firms stave off Chinese competition through software and services prowess? Or will China’s hardware expertise be the deciding factor? Perhaps Indian firms can grow to be global leaders in 3D printing services? Or India could remain a regional market alone? We’re very excited by the market developments in the country and reached out to think3D to get their perspective on 3D printing in India.

What is the 3D printing market in India like?

India got onto 3D Printing bandwagon bit late when compared to various other countries and the industry is still at its infancy in India. But the future looks very bright for 3D Printing in India. The reasons for this are two fold. One, with massive investments happening in infrastructure in India and with China becoming expensive for manufacturing, manufacturing for exports are slowly shifting to India from China. This shall open up a big market for 3D Printing in India. Secondly, multinational corporations have realized that global innovation won’t suit for solving local problems and they need local innovation teams sitting in that specific region for the same. With India offering such huge domestic market, it becomes justifiable for these companies to invest in such local R&D set-ups. This will also create a massive market for 3D Printing in India.

What is being done to stimulate 3D printing in India?

The government of India has launched various schemes to promote domestic R&D and Innovation and a considerable chunk of the funds allocated to those schemes have been channeled into the 3D Printing industry as 3D Printing is a perfect tool for various R&D activities. We can divide the governmental scheme primarily into 3 categories

School Level: The Government has launched ATL (Atal Tinkering Labs) scheme wherein the government gives funds to selected schools to set up 3D Printing & Robotics labs. Various schools in India are now equipped with desktop 3D Printers and school kids are using those machines for better understanding of the concepts they learn in the class.

University Level: Multiple schemes are available across multiple ministries to promote high-quality technical education in the universities. Universities are ranked according to their performance and well-ranked universities are given funds to promote research work. As 3D Printing is industry agnostic, funds from various departments like health, biotechnology, science, electronics are all getting channelled to the 3D Printing industry.

Enterprise Level: To promote local manufacturing in India under the “MAKE IN INDIA” scheme, the government is setting up various industrial clusters across India. In many such clusters, the government is investing in a few common scientific facilities to make these clusters attractive for potential manufacturers and to reduce the cost of manufacturing in these clusters. 3D Printing is identified as one such common scientific facility. Our facility is under this scheme. The government identifies a qualified service provider through the tendering process and co-invests in the facility along with the service provider.

What industries are interested in promoting it?

The Automotive, Medical (Dental), Aerospace, Defence, Jewelry and Manufacturing industries are those who are actively participating in 3D Printing. While 3D Printing has long been used in the Automotive and Aerospace industries; in the last 2 years, we are seeing a major market getting opened up in dental and jewelry industry. DMLS 3D Printing of dental crowns has become common practice. the Jewelry industry is also quickly adapting to 3D Printed molds.

Raja Sekhar Upputuri Co-Founder think3D

What will you spend the six million on?

This six million dollar is to be invested over multiple phases in a span of 5 years. In the first phase we invested around USD 2 million. The first phase agenda is to build a technology experience center to serve dual purposes of serving customer 3D Printing needs and showcasing various 3D Printing technologies and applications to local industry & academia. So, we had set up a holistic 3D Printing center with the entire gamut of technologies namely FDM, SLA/DLP, SLS, PJP, CJP, MJP, MJF, DMLS, Bio 3D Printing, Electronics 3D Printing and Paste Extrusion. We also invested in subtractive manufacturing technologies such as CNC, EDM and molding technologies like Vacuum Casting & Injection Molding. In the second phase, we shall invest more on technologies for which there is demand in commercial applications.

What technologies are you focusing on?

Our major focus will be primarily on DMLS, SLS, CNC and Vacuum Casting.

Why medical devices?

India is importing 70% of all medical devices used in hospitals and diagnostic centers in India. This is leading to a huge loss to foreign exchange, lack of local employment and contributing to the high cost of healthcare in India. To solve these three major problems and provide affordable health care to masses, the government of India has identified medical device manufacturing as one priority sector to focus on under the “MAKE IN INDIA” initiative. The provincial government of Andhra Pradesh has taken lead on this initiative and has set up India’s first dedicated medical device manufacturing park called AMTZ (AP MedTech Zone). This park has a complete ecosystem to promote local manufacturing of medical devices in India and also promote low cost innovation in medical device space. Low cost innovation in healthcare delivery has been identified as an activity of national importance and many startups mushroomed around this concept. Our facility shall be offering services to all these innovators.

What materials do you find interesting for medical devices?

One fundamental material requirement in medical devices is usage of medical grade / biocompatible materials for areas that come in contact with the human body. Secondly, we find that major innovation is happening around non-invasive diagnosis such wearable devices. So, there is an increased demand for rubber like medical grade materials used in PJP technology. Titanium is also in demand for custom implants. PEEK is another material for which there is lot of requirement in medical space. 

If I were a firm interested in using 3D printing what advice would you give me?

Many people have this impression that with 3D Printing we can solve any manufacturing problem. Nothing is farther from the truth than this. 3D Printing is one of the various manufacturing techniques available in the market. The way to choose a technology is through a combination of a problem statement, technological capabilities, costing and resource availability. My advice is to evaluate 3D Printing and go for it when it is proven to be the most optimal choice for firm’s problem statement. Another point to note here is that with slight design changes 3D Printing can provide a much better solution at lower cost than other manufacturing techniques. So, firms should be open towards engaging AM Design consultants and see if they can get better solution through 3D Printing. 

How will you partner with and educate people?

Training human resources on Additive Manufacturing is another major mandate given to us by government. We are partnering with various governmental agencies like APIS (Andhra Pradesh Innovation Society), APSSDC (Andhra Pradesh Skill Development Corporation), CII (Confederation Of Indian Industries) to conduct regular workshops on 3D Printing. We have also been conducting regular free workshops across all metro cities in India over the last few years to bring awareness on this technology.