Which division are you and your team entering?Main Division
Idea Name3D Optogenetic Bioprinter
Team Member Name(s)Eleanor Locke
Idea SummaryThe ability to custom print biologics, biologic medicines, or organs containing substances created with living cells or organisms would open the road to significantly more complex processes in the medical and scientific communities. E42 Technologies hopes to create a 3D SLA-based bioprinter that utilizes optogenetics, artificial intelligence, and gene editing to print complex organs.
By open sourcing the design, hospitals would be able to have their own print labs to provide a needed organ within days, rather than waiting for a donor. Academic environments could print organs for experimental use; even to the point of printing different functioning organs.
A variable frequency laser with a fixed frequency laser would be positioned to combine the two beams into one focal point. The variable frequency laser would be used to activate the proteins that specialize the stem cells, while the fixed frequency laser would cure the surrounding biocompatible resin. The resin in question would decompose and feed the cells while the print completes. The biocompatible resin rests in a reservoir, and automatically refills the print basin. The print basin is populated with a modified stem cell culture from the patient.
The stem cell culture would be modified with a virus that contains the genetic code for proteins to differentiate the stem cells into the specific cells being printed. It also includes code to induce replication of the cells in a specific band of light and code that would set the code of the proteins that force differentiation to "expire" upon differentiation. Single cell sequencing would be used to generate detailed maps of the organs to be printed, so that cell groups can be mapped, layered, then sent to print.