An Australian innovation in 3D printing technology may just help in the fight against cancer according to a recent report.
A new 3D bio-printer was recently built by a start-up based in Sydney. The 3D bio-printer is said to be capable of removing the need for time-consuming manual labour done by medical lab workers.
Rastrum is a pink printer that emulates ink-jet technology, in order to print human cells at a rapid rate, quickly cultivating realistic tumours for testing cancer drugs.
Moreover, it is capable of conducting multiple experiments at the same time.
A researcher has even commented that with Rastrum, he was able to produce more cell models within a few weeks as compared to what he previously produced during his entire PhD.
The head of the Victorian Centre for Functional Genomics (VCFG) said that the machine will have a profound impact on the Centre’s studies.
This will definitely be a game changer for the Centre in a discovery-based science. They will be able to screen through a thousand of drugs.
Investing in start-ups can be risky business, but Inventia found itself at least one big backer. The co-founder of an Australian software giant has financially backed the start-up through his fund, the Skip Capital.
The start-up was surprised with the positive response they received when they went to the markets with the goal of raising capital.
The financier invested in the start-up because many drug research laboratories are being run like they were still in the dark ages and in need of new technology.
It is the next big frontier. Many other industries have been digitised already. Healthcare remains to be one of the least digitised areas.
Things move a lot faster, the financier added, once problems are made into software problems. Healthcare, however, has resisted this for some reason.
There are hopes that eventually the technology will develop enough to grow skin, tissues, and organs.
The great promise of 3D bio-printing as a technology is the ability to print tissues and potentially organs on demand using a patient’s own cells.
As the technology matures, that will be the ultimate vision in the coming decades.
Imagine being able to literally print one’s own heart with the person’s DNA and be able to replace it. A lot of live will be saved.
The technology to print hearts may still be decades off but the start-up hopes to see its printer helping out in medical labs all over the globe.
