3-D printers have been used for a variety of things, from food to guns, and even buildings. But could it be used to make biological substances?
That's the idea behind the BioBots 3-D printer.
The U.S. Biotech startup revealed its new 3-D printer at TechCrunch Disrupt this week. BioBot's cofounder Danny Cabrera says that the device combines hardware, software and wetware to create new biological objects.
Biofabrication, the process of artificially building living tissue structures, is not a new field - there is more than a decade of research in this area already. But Cabrera and his co-founders believe they have spotted an opportunity to overhaul expensive (circa $100,000+), large, complex legacy devices - taking inspiration from the small, low-cost desktop 3-D printers being used by the maker movement to extrude plastic, TechCrunch reported.
The printer uses a biological substance-based ink to combine bio-organic material and living cells to build actually living cells that can perform basic biological functions. Now, these aren't replacement organs; TechCrunch noted that they're designed for more scientific functions, such as researching and testing an organ's ability to respond to certain medical procedures. This would provide a new way to test a medical procedure instead of testing them on animals.
The idea started out as a dorm room project where the founders were originally going to graduate from school with degrees in biology and engineering. However, an interest in genetic and tissue engineering caused them to develop a prototype printer. The project eventually impressed people enough to receive accelerator funds and start a company. The founders have been testing the device with a number of researchers.
Now, BioBots is launching a beta program where the company will sell the product to researchers for a base price of $700.
