Start-up was founded by 2 Indian Institute of Science graduates.
By Sreejith Vallikunnu
Bengaluru-based biotechnology start-up Pandorum Technologies Pvt. Ltd. has developed India’s first artificial 3D printed human liver tissue that can lead to affordable, full-scale transplantable 3D printed organs within a few years.
The company claims that they are able to keep the cells alive for four weeks. These tissues also could lead an affordable medical research for developing new life-saving medicines and vaccines.
In the near future, the 3D bio printed liver tissue will have numerous substantial uses for pharmaceutical drug and vaccine testing.
Pharmaceutical companies are spending around $10 billion and even 10 years in research and development to get a single new drug to market with FDA approval.
Pandorum expects its technology could reduce the costs of drug R&D and testing by as much as 30 percent, particularly in the Indian market, said a statement.
The nano-bio-technology start up’s operations are spearheaded by two Indian Institute of Science graduates, Arun Chandru and Tuhin Bhowmick. The company was founded with the goal of developing bio-mimetic elastomeric protein-based hydrogels for tissue engineering applications.
The four-year-old Pandorum is funded by the Department of Biotechnology and incubated at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP), Bangalore Bio-Cluster.
“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,” said Arun Chandru, MD and co-founder, in a statement.
“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,” he added.
“This is a significant milestone,” said Tuhin Bhowmick, Pandorum’s co-founder, in a statement. “Being able to engineer complex tissues such as the human liver is no easy task.”
He added that the development of artificial organs has multiple clinical uses, from developing bio-artificial liver support systems for patients with liver failure, to eventually addressing the acute shortage of human organs available for surgical transplantation.
The 3D bio-printing market is growing in a rapid pace in India, with companies in a race to be the first to develop functional human tissue, skin, vascular systems and even entire organs.