Lung biotechnology tags ibio for bioink production

You have full access to this article via your institution. Download PDF Lung Biotechnology continues making inroads toward its goal of manufacturing 3D bioprinted lungs, with a newly

announced partnership with iBio to scale up bioink production. The partnership follows a 2018 deal with the Israeli regenerative medicine company CollPlant to license and develop technology

for creating organ scaffolds from bioink derived from recombinant human collagen. Lung Biotechnology, a public benefit corporation subsidiary of United Therapeutics, will use the scaffolds

to create bioprintable lungs. iBio will use its FastPharma platform—an automated plant-based protein expression system combined with hydroponics and glycan engineering—to scale up production

of CollPlant’s bioink for fabricating lung scaffolds that can then be taken to clinical trials. Additional collaborations might be needed to optimize and expand the process for producing

commercial quantities, iBio said. Recombinant human collagen bioink is being used with various bioprinting technologies. CollPlant’s bioink—extracted from the leaves of tobacco plants

genetically engineered with five human genes to produce collagen—includes light-sensitive compounds that can modify the bioink to match natural tissue properties, ranging from cartilage to

adipose tissue. Other groups, like the biotech company Organovo, are using 3D bioprinting to generate a spectrum of tissues, including liver, kidney and intestine, mainly for lab-on-a-chip

technologies. Bioprinting complex organs has remained out of reach, and few companies have attempted to produce lungs. But 3D bioprinted lungs took a step forward in May, with the

publication of findings in _Science_ from a Rice University team demonstrating a stereolithographic method of using photoactivated liquid resins to create hydrogels with vascular

architectures that mimic lung air sacks. The researchers cofounded Volumetric last year to commercialize next-generation biofabrication materials and systems based on their findings. At

least one other company, 3DBio, is developing a collagen bioink for 3D bioprinters. iBio declined to disclose financial terms of the deal. RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions

ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Lung Biotechnology tags iBio for bioink production. _Nat Biotechnol_ 37, 1100 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-019-0288-7 Download citation *

Published: 02 October 2019 * Issue Date: October 2019 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-019-0288-7 SHARE THIS ARTICLE Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this

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