Medical Design Briefs - September 2023 - 26

BIOMEDevice Boston
material composition inside of a part. Additionally, 3D printer
substrates will become more complex to allow for the creation
of new geometries. For example, the PrintRoll™ system, which
Desktop Health recently released for the 3D-Bioplotter, allows
cylindrical devices to be easily created by printing on top of a
rotating mandrel. We are excited to see what new innovations
will " roll out " from this innovation for vascular, respiratory, and
other channel-like tissue grafts.
MDB: How are new materials making 3D printing a more viable
option for healthcare, particularly in bioprinting tissues?
NB: Materials are at the crux of functionality of all devices,
whether they are manufactured by 3D printing or by conventional
manufacturing methods. While direct 3D printing of
cell-laden inks is of growing interest for the development of
thick tissues and organs, there are many challenges related to
high costs, cell sourcing/scaling, vascularization, and complex
regulatory pathways that can limit the practicality of this approach.
Improvements in these areas will make it more feasible,
but it may be decades until we see entire bioprinted organs
being successfully implanted into humans.
The human body has an innate ability to repair itself -
often, it just needs guidance. Thus, for many tissues, including
your eardrum, intelligently designed grafts can support and
guide the ingrowth of native cells, leading to tissue regeneration
as the graft material degrades. I expect to see an increase
in natural and synthetic biomaterials that promote and encourage
cells from the patient's own body to infiltrate and to remodel
grafts. In particular, biomaterials that encourage angiogenesis,
or the formation of new blood vessels, into these grafts
will become more common.
Researchers are also discovering that porosity plays a large
role in the immune system's response to foreign materials, and
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the ideal pore size for regeneration is often different for different
tissues in the body. Thus, the ability to carefully tune porosity
gradients makes 3D printing an ideal option for manufacturing
tissue grafts.
MDB: What do you see as the biggest obstacle to integration of
3D printing into medtech?
NB: One large obstacle to the integration of 3D printing into
medtech is the industry's inertia. Most companies have been
manufacturing their products by the same methods for decades.
It makes sense - regulatory pathways are long and expensive,
and so it is often prohibitive to explore new manufacturing technologies
for existing products. Additionally, the industry's riskaverse
nature means that most innovative R&D is done at startup
companies and smaller companies rather than at large
players. Most large medtech companies bring in new products by
waiting until a product from one of these smaller companies has
received regulatory approval and secured market adoption.
Thus, unlocking funding and talent for small and mid-sized
companies will be critical to advancing 3D printing's role in
medtech.
In the Desktop Health Biofabrication Innovation Office
(DH-BIO), located in the Charlestown neighborhood of Boston,
we are aiming to lower this barrier of entry for companies
to pursue innovation in 3D printing. We have state-ofthe-art
facilities and equipment for material development,
alongside three Manufacturer Series 3D-Bioplotters. Additionally,
our interdisciplinary team has incredible industryspecific
knowledge into what can make a 3D printed device
successful. We are interested in partnering with companies of
all sizes through joint development agreements to develop
innovative medical devices, and we are looking forward to
" moving the nozzle in healthcare " alongside our partners.
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Medical Design Briefs, September 2023
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Medical Design Briefs - September 2023

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