Bengaluru startup develops 3D printed liver tissues

A city-based biotechnology startup Pandorum Technologies today said it has developed artificial 3D bio-printed liver tissues.
Pandorum's artificial liver tissues not only represent a major step towards the on-demand manufacturing of human organs for transplant, but also has potential to be a game changer for developing new medicines and vaccines, the company said in a statement.
"Liver toxicity and drug metabolism are the key hurdles, and contributors to failed human trials. Our 3D bio-printed mini-livers that mimic the human liver will serve as test platforms for discovery and development of drugs with better efficacy, less side-effects and at lower costs," Pandorum Technologies MD and co-founder Arun Chandru said.

The 3D printed living tissues enables affordable medical research with reduced animal and human trials, and eventually leads to full scale transplantable organs, the Pandorum Technologies said.
"This is a significant milestone," Dr Tuhin Bhowmick, who holds a PhD from Indian Institute of Science and Pandorum Technologies co-founder said.
"Being able to engineer complex tissues such as the human liver is no easy task," he added.

"Development of artificial organs has numerous clinical uses. Cell based organoids can be used to develop bio-artificial liver support systems for preserving life in patients who have developed liver failure.
"In the near future, such bio-printed organs will address the acute shortage of human organs available for surgical transplantation," Bhowmick said.

Pharma giants on an average spend upward of US $10 Billion
and 10 years on R&D to get a single new drug to market with the approval of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The global market for in vitro toxicity testing alone is expected to reach USD 4 billion by 2018.
"It is a multi-billion dollar fast growing market, and we intend to continue being a leader. More importantly, our technology has the potential to impact millions of lives," Chandru said.
Pandorum Technologies, founded in 2011 by an academic entrepreneurs, is a biotechnology startup with distinct synergy of life science and engineering competencies.

The company works on design and manufacturing of functional human tissues for medical research, therapeutic and other applications.
Pandorum is supported by grants from the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), Government of India, and is located in the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP), Bengaluru Bio-Cluster.