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Argentinian biotechnology agency Stämm Biotech has reportedly closed a $17 million Collection A funding spherical which can assist the corporate speed up the event of its next-generation 3D printed bioreactor.
The agency is creating its microfluidics-based bioreactor utilizing its proprietary self-developed Brick Printing Expertise which powers its Sclereid 3D printer. In keeping with Stämm, the 3D printer’s capabilities might lengthen to constructing the put in capability of bioreactors worldwide for biopharma in only one yr.
Alongside refining its microfluidic bioreactors and related instruments, the corporate additionally plans to make use of the brand new funds to double its headcount to round 200, and develop its worldwide presence.
Stämm’s novel bioreactor
Industrial-scale bioreactors are massive, sterilized tanks crammed with a medium inside which a selected sort of cell or organism can develop. Inside most bioreactors, the cell cultures are stirred utilizing a motorized instrument, saved on the desired temperature utilizing coolants, and are provided with the correct quantity of oxygen to assist their development.
Stämm is looking for to downsize such biomanufacturing services right into a desktop-sized all-in-one plug-and-play unit, composed of three microfluidic gadgets. The agency’s bioreactor incorporates Cell line-on-a-chip to offer a relentless circulate of accessible cells to provoke the response course of, a Bioreactor-on-a-chip operate to calibrate parameters like tradition medium, PH, dissolved oxygen and cell density, and a bubble-free microbioreactor printed with porous supplies.
For the microbioreactor, the agency is deploying 3D printing to manufacture a posh community of microchannels that go cells by means of the vitamins and oxygen they want, due to this fact eliminating the necessity for tanks, stirring, and tubes. The microchannels maintain cells in a steady, unidirectional, laminar circulate and allow the specified mixing of cells, media, and gases to make sure optimum situations always.
The advanced nature of the microfluidic channels meant 3D printing was the one expertise recognized by the agency as being appropriate for the duty. Nevertheless, accessible additive manufacturing processes available on the market couldn’t ship the big floor areas with out compromising the dimensions of the pixels. To beat this, the corporate determined to construct its personal machine that would.
Stämm’s Sclereid 3D printer is powered by the agency’s proprietary Brick Printing Expertise, which leverages the advantages of printing thousands and thousands of dots concurrently with the precision and flexibility of laser-based printers. Outfitted with a 29-liter printing quantity, the Scleroid is able to printing 590 million pixels per second of six microns in measurement and as much as 983 million pixels per layer.
Having developed the Sclereid, Stämm then used the machine to 3D print the microbioreactor for its desktop biomanufacturing facility. Not solely is the bioreactor as much as 200 instances smaller than a lot of its conventional industrial counterparts, nevertheless it additionally claims to extend productiveness by an estimated 70 instances.
The $17 million Collection A funding spherical
The $17 million raised by means of Stämm’s Collection A funding spherical brings the corporate’s whole funding up to now to $20 million. The agency will use the funds to proceed the event of its 3D printed bioreactor and enter the early levels of commercializing the expertise.
Stämm will allocate a portion of the funds to doubling its headcount to round 200 staff and to increasing its worldwide presence. The capital injection will even assist the agency to additional refine and develop the instruments required to manage its biomanufacturing facility.
The most recent funding spherical was led by asset administration agency Varana, and noticed participation from new traders Vista, New Abundance, Trillian, Serenity Merchants, Teramips, and Decarbonization Consortium. Stämm’s current traders Draper Associates, SOSV, Grid Exponential, VistaEnergy, Cygnus Draper, and Dragones VC additionally supported the spherical.
Stämm instructed TechCrunch it has 5 potential new companions in pipeline, and plans to enter “pilot scale” for its bioreactor later this yr.
Advances in 3D printing bioreactors
Additive manufacturing has been leveraged for numerous bioreactor designs up to now, as an illustration by scientists from the Massachussetts Institute of Expertise (MIT) and the Indian Institute of Expertise Madras. The group developed a novel 3D printed microfluidic bioreactor able to rising self-organizing human mind tissue for a value of simply $5, which might present a low-cost different for drug testing and creating therapies for sicknesses like dementia.
Elsewhere, researchers from the College of Crete have beforehand 3D printed bioreactors for DNA amplification functions, whereas Cornell College scientists have 3D printed a microscopic bioreactor able to fabricating artificial intestines.
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Featured picture exhibits Stämm Biotech’s Bioprocessor, containing the agency’s 3D printed microbioreactor. Picture by way of Stämm Biotech.
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