University Prof to Commercialize 3-D Printed Cell Platforms

Mark DeCoster (Louisiana Tech University)

15 December 2014. A biomedical engineer at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston plans to develop a commercial platform for three-dimensional printing of artificial cells in research, education, and industrial applications. Mark DeCoster, an engineering faculty member at Louisiana Tech, received a $50,000 National Science Foundation I-Corps grant to further develop the idea into a marketable product.

DeCoster, with graduate student Kahla St. Marthe and Shafin Khan of the New Orleans Bioinnovation Center, will design and develop the 3-D cell printing concept, while starting up a new enterprise to take the concept to market. The idea is an outgrowth of research in DeCoster’s cellular neuroscience lab that studies communication among brain cells, as well as changes in cellular processes. Differences in cells and cellular activity, and their impact on brain networks, according to DeCoster, can also be modeled with software, and thus could test various conditions affecting brain cells using those computer models.

“It occurred to me,” says DeCoster in a university statement, “that we could develop artificial cells that could reflect how cells change with time and if we could make these of interest to researchers and to teachers, we could make products that could benefit students as well as basic and applied research such as at universities and in industry.” He adds that the lab is already using 3-D printers, which could 3-D print the artificial cells.

DeCoster and colleagues plan to apply 3-D printing to create artificial cells with standard plastics at first, to visualize and test dynamic models of cells in water-based environments. The printing technology would be combined with educational and visualization software aimed at maximizing the learning experience. Their goal would be to provide a learning experience that captures the complexity and dynamic nature of cellular processes, while making it possible for students to conduct experiments and test their own ideas.

While the Louisiana Tech team would start with standard 3-D printing plastics, they forsee adding dyes and chemicals that may better illustrate the variables being tested. Later, capabilities such as fluorescence and microscopic-scale measurements could be added, eventually leading to libraries of artificial cells and components for research and education.

I-Corps, short for Innovation Corps, is a National Science Foundation program that helps academic scientsts extend their research into the commercial world, including development of technologies with short-term benefits for the economy or society.  Academic researchers, with student entrepreneurs and business mentors, form teams that receive training and guidance to move their products or services into the marketplace. Since June, both National Institutes of Health and Department of Energy started I-Corps programs to commercialize biotechnology and energy innovations by their academic grant recipients.

Read more:

• Nanomedicine Developer Secures $7.5M Venture Funds
• Venture Launched to Reduce Chronic Hospitalizations
• High-Speed Artery Imaging Technology in Development
• Needleless Delivery Start-Up Lands $11M First-Round Funding
• Company Launched for Tissue Regrowth, Inflammation Drugs

*     *     *