Printed organs around the corner? Nano Dimension develops a 3D Bio-printer

25 May, 2016

During a surprising experiment carried out in cooperation with Technion’s offshoot Accellta, Nano Dimension printed a 3D structure containing Stem-cells. The company’s share soared by 17%

During a surprising experiment carried out in cooperation with Technion’s offshoot Accellta, Nano Dimension printed a 3D structure containing Stem-cells. The company’s share soared by 17%

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A conceptual representation of an “organ printer”

Nano Dimension harnesses its unique 3D printing technology to the biotechnological field. After the trade in the company’s stock was suspended in the TLV stock market this morning (25/5/2016) due to a special announcement, the company announced it has successfully completed a lab test of  3D Bioprinting of Stem cells, together with biomed startup Accellta. Accellta was founded in 2012 by the Technion’s commercialization branch and specialized in stem cell culturing. Following the announcement, Nano Dimension’s stock, which is traded in TLV and in NASDAQ gained 17% putting the company’s market cap at 231 million New Shekels.

In the tests conducted over recent weeks, the two Israeli companies successfully printed a biological structure comprised of Stem cells and a biological culture placed accurately by the printer. Nano Dimension’s unique 3D technology was adjusted to the biological field – instead of using polymeric materials and silver ink as is the case when printing PCB’s – the test was preformed using biological materials and “particles” made of Stem-cells grown by Accellta.

Nano Dimension's stock skyrocketed today
Nano Dimension’s stock skyrocketed today

Welcome to the Bio-printing world

One of the parameters examined in the experiment was the condition of the cells after the printing process. Techtime has learned that the experiment is considered a success due to the fact that the Stem cells were in the planned locations – and alive. In an announcement made today, the two companies said that by combining both technologies, they enables faster and more accurate cell printing than possible today. In the future, this technology might be used for printing tissues and even organs – further down the road.

Accellta’s technology is used to generate and differentiate billions of high quality cells per batch. The two company’s plan to develop a 3D printer that will enable large scale, high resolution 3Dprinting of biological material. These will serve the medical research sector. The technology has tremendous value for areas such as pre-clinical drug discovery and testing, cosmetics safety testing, toxicology assays, tissue printing and ‘organs on chips’.

Establishing  a Bio-printing company

The companies will consider the formation of a new entity for these future solutions and do not intend to invest significant capital directly to expand this activity. Such funds would be raised by and for the use of the joint entity. IDTechEx forecasts the market for 3D bioprinting to grow rapidly over the next decade from a market size of $481 million in 2014 to as much as $6 billion in 2024. Developments in these emerging fields are progressing at a swift pace, and the healthcare industry is clamoring to participate.

Accellta's cell generating facility in the Technion
Accellta’s cell generating facility in the Technion

From Electronic Circuits to Living Cells

Ness Ziona, Israel, based Nano Dimension is an expert in 3D printing of electrical Printed Circuit Boards. The company has developed the Dragonfly printer, a product that enables direct printing of multi-layer PCBs based on specialized polymeric materials for the isolating layer and silver nano-particles for the conductive parts. The successful test conducted with Accellta shows just how vast the potential is outside the electronic field.

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