French companies and clinical researchers create a center of gravity for liver bioprinting.
On Wednesday, September 13th, Biopredic International and Cellenion unveiled a new joint “IFBF-Institute” laboratory at Hospital Paul-Brousse in Villejuif (south of Paris).
Cellenion, a daughter company of Berlin based Scienion AG, is a specialist in fully automated printing of viable cells for applications in the fields of bio-printing and bio-analytics. Biopredic International, a company based in Rennes, is a world leader in the production of a large range of cells and associated products for industrial research applications, with focus in pharmacokinetics, toxicology and pharmacology studies.
“Being able to work using bioprinting technologies offering resolution down to single cell is a fundamental tool in biology, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine” said Guilhem Tourniaire, Directeur Général at Cellenion, “With Biopredic, we have found a partner with excellent cell-based products and deep expertise in liver tissues engineering. This new facility will enable close collaborations with world-class clinicians and researchers to drastically accelerate development in liver tissue bioengineering”.
« We are a very customer focused company. As such, we always seek to expand our portfolio of solutions across the latest platform technologies” states Christophe Chesné, Chief Executive Officer at Biopredic and adds “Cellenion’s new acoustic based bioprinting technology is very synergistic with our cell and cell culture capabilities. The expertise of both companies are highly complementary, and working together in a joint laboratory will extend the companies’ clinical reach far beyond what was possible today”.
In recognition to the instrumental role of the association IFBF-Institute in enabling this joint laboratory opening, the laboratory was officially named “IFBF-Institute”. This Paris-based association funded by donations is dedicated to build an international platform devoted to the construction of bioengineered tissues in order to address the shortage of organ suitable for transplantation.
“IFBF-Institute is very pleased that two high tech and key commercial partners for regenerative liver sciences have settled in Villejuif and started joint activities in close proximity to patient care at Paul-Brousse Hospital“ states Prof. Dominique Franco, Founder and Chairman of IFBF-Institute.
Cellenion, Biopredic, IFBF-Institute and scientists at Paul-Brousse Hospital Campus are also members of the iLite (Innovations Liver Tissue Engineering) RHU project. iLite is a 5-year project funded by the National Research Agency (ANR), directed by professor Jean-Charles Duclos-Vallée, that gathers leading French researchers, clinicians and industrial partners to develop an external bio-artificial liver for acute liver failure patients, liver-on-a-chip platform for toxicology studies and, in the longer term, a transplantable bio-constructed liver. The joint laboratories of Cellenion and Biopredic are geared to accelerate research within the iLite consortium and establish new collaborations with researchers and clinicians at Paul-Brousse Hospital as well as other university hospitals in the region.