In Massachusetts, CELLINK is expanding its 3D bioprinting technology with its newly opened U.S. headquarters in Cambridge near MIT. The company makes and sells 3D printers and 15 different biologically active inks to make cells and tissues. One of the key ingredients in making bioinks useful is they hydrogels made from tree cellulose and sea algae that help provide the scaffold to give cells their shape.
CEO Erik Gatenholm told WBUR “Let’s say for example liver tissue. They can use our technology to print livers and then pharmaceutical companies or other researchers can test different new drugs on these livers or they can test different chemicals in these livers and see how they react.” So instead of testing on animals, researchers could use printed human tissues to test their new drugs and treatments.
Based in Sweden, CELLINK operates in more than 40 countries and is looking to hire more experts to join their team, specifically in biomaterials, chemistry, cell biology, software and robotic engineering.