Organovo Holdings, Inc. (ONVO)

[User-65225]

The actual bioprinter is not the key to developing tissue, although Organovos Bioprinter is much more advanced than the Chinese.

From what i understand the Chinese are all hype, they cannot construct the "Mutilayered Vascular tubes" which are REQUIRED for nutrients to get into the cells and waste to be removed. Organovo has this patent... http://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=WO2011116125&recNum=1&maxRec=&office=&prevFilter=&sortOption=&queryString=&tab=PCT+Biblio

The link you provided states... The Hangzhou team, led by Xu Ming-En, built their bioprinter to operate using consecutive layers of hydrogel that can be embedded with cells.

Being able to be embedded with cells, is not the same as creating LIVING tissue, as ONVO has been doing for years. They are a long way behind ONVO using that process.

Some other info...

The company recently succeeded in fabricating hollow blood vessels. Obtaining a tissue shape like this requires the same multi-material methods used for other complex 3D printing jobs. Organovo uses a collagen hydrogel as the scaffolding material, and after the cell tissue has grown, this material is removed. In the case of blood vessels, the scaffolding gel is formed into cylinders, and the tissue cells are deposited around it.

Organovo received patents in July for its multilayer vascular tissues and a core technology that produced them. These accomplishments also earned Organovo a spot on the MIT Technology Review’s TR50 list of the most innovative technology companies of 2012.... http://www.progressiveengineer.com/company_profiles/organovo.htm

The issuance of the "Multilayered Vascular Tubes" patent provides protection on an application-specific basis that is independent of method and is part of Organovo's larger intellectual property strategy to create application-specific protection and to obtain coverage in multiple countries.

For other companies to get where ONVO is at in the process, they will most likely have to sign a licensing agreement with ONVO, or spend years (like ONVO did) coming up with something entirely different... but that might not be worth it if ONVO has the best method. Sometimes its better to do a licensing deal and save years worth of expenses/time trying to come up with something that MIGHT work...

Organovo is blazing the trail and locking down KEY patents before the competition... The "Multilayered Vascular Tubes" patent is just one example, they have several other patents issued and pending, in multiple countries.

This is from 2010, before they secured the patent... ONVO is way ahead of the competition...

First Fully Bioprinted Blood Vessels
12/08/2010

SAN DIEGO and ORLANDO - Dec. 8, 2010 - Organovo, Inc., a regenerative medicine company focused on bioprinting technology, today announced the release of data on the first fully bioprinted blood vessels. Data was presented at the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS) meeting in Orlando, Florida. The blood vessels were created through the use of the NovoGen MMX Bioprinter, Organovo’s proprietary platform for the creation of 3D tissue constructs.

Dr. Craig Kent, Chief of Surgery at the University of Wisconsin and an Organovo Scientific Advisory Board Member commented, “This is exciting progress towards functional human arterial grafts. Success in an effort like this could eventually help tens of thousands of patients.”

“These vessels are the world’s first arteries made solely from cells of an individual person,” said Keith Murphy, Chief Executive Officer of Organovo. “Our results show the power of the NovoGen bioprinting technology to create tissue starting only with cells.”

The blood vessels are printed from the elements of native arteries: primary endothelial, smooth muscle and fibroblast cells from human donors. Dr. Chirag Khatiwala, Senior Scientist at Organovo, presented a review of the program in an oral presentation at the TERMIS scientific meeting.

“These results highlight the power of the NovoGen MMX Bioprinter,” said Dr. Khatiwala. “The cell viability and flexibility that the platform enables has allowed rapid progress towards this and other tissue types, and the goal of providing tissue on demand.”

About Organovo, Inc.

Organovo is a regenerative medicine company focused on delivering breakthrough human tissue printing technology and creating tissue on demand for research and surgical applications. The company’s NovoGen three-dimensional bioprinting technology is a platform that works across all tissue and cell types. Organovo is helping physicians and researchers fulfill the promise of regenerative medicine by overcoming critical problems in cardiovascular medicine, medical research, and transplant medicine. Organovo technology leads the way in solving complex medical problems with one overarching goal: to benefit the health and lives of patients. www.organovo.com