There is much to discuss here.

From the Jump! Sessions the major takeaway was empathy. The way I see it there are two approaches to testing the waters. One is the massive data collection and data analyses, the large numbers game. The other is listening to people, but really listening to them in the manner that we discussed. Unattached to any particular result, and encouraging them to talk without guiding their responses. I had seen entrepreneurs do this before (even to me) but I had never given it a name or described why it works.

Looking back at my earlier writings, I think I’m now striking a better balance between writing for myself and writing in a language that a “smart 5 year old” can understand. Abstraction can be personally useful, but one must be mindful of one’s audience.

The design component of this course reminded me I need to incorporate something creative into my schedule at all times. Some type of making, whatever it may be.

Learning Sketchup was a notable challenge I faced where I suffered through the first hour or so but then it all “clicked”. I got through the slump by looking up Youtube videos and gaining ‘dexterity’ with the interface before I concerned myself with letting my creativty run rampant.

The major challenge I faced is that during the week of presentations, my father had a major surgery and that situation was very disorienting for me academically. Due to this, I was more irritable than I normally would be and I let my dissatisfaction with my team’s performance get me angry.
If I could advise myself from late August I’d tell me ‘keep it dumb simple and don’t be too diplomatic’. I should have insisted on a less complex, easier-to-present idea considering the task of designing a presentation would fall, primarily, on me.

The strength I refined is ideation. I’m good at moving from one idea to the next, at failing forward. This class provided many opportunities to do that during the ideation process.

Like I mentioned, I will be keeping a close eye on bioprinting as I continue to explore tech entrepreneurship.
This class genuinely brought value to me and to my career objectives.
Thank you professors.

Sebastian

This assignment was useful in that it allowed me to deconstruct and internalize an extremely complex, even conceptual topic. In doing so, I witnessed the manner in which Bioprinting emerged as a hybrid of the type of 3d Printing we studied in class and of regenerative medicine, particularly stem cell applications. I also became aware that its refinement to the point of clinical viability will encompass many disciplines, from data science to robotics.

I learned everything that I could regarding how the technology functions. The only way to learn more would be to actually get in front of a unit, an opportunity that I should seek out sooner than later.

I sized up the space and its major players and soon realized that, due to the enormous barriers to entry and the fact that no “sensible” venture-capitalist would invest in something this disruptive, there is a rather small network of  interconnected teams looking to guide this technology in the right direction. They are surprisingly easy to find and open to interaction.

I thought about the future of Bioprinting, in such a way that I can now “play where the puck is going to be” rather than where it is. Its a speculative prospect but done, right, it can be very lucrative career-wise. I believe, the biotech industry is set to undergo massive expansion throughout this decade. The only setback is that the efficacy of technologies like bioprinting has not been proven. Fortunately, my background in hard-biological sciences allows me to understand why this approach is viable and even desirable and I learned from this class, how quickly a technology can go from obscurity to ubiquity.

Finally, I outlined a path to follow over the next year that will get me closer to working in Biotech, perhaps one day on bioprinting. This is the kind of audacious goal that requires a huge amount of unconventional thinking, and in that regard, the fact that I’m blogging about this unique interest is testament to the utility of this class’ assignments.

As I mentioned before, I now depart South East Asia, to travel, meditate, and learn of entrepreneurship from some mentors residing in the area. Perhaps, I will continue this blog along my journey.

Step 1:

First, I will continue to build my knowledge of all its key players private, public, academic, etc. As much as possible, I will do this by actually interacting with them so I can get a feeling of the industry culture.

So far, I’ve made considerable progress in this. For example, not to long ago, I held an event at which a company called MetaMed was present. They were a type of concierge medical informatics service, but what was interesting is that they were backed by Peter Thiel (who backed Modern Meadow). They explained how one of their clients was able to grow a finger back utilizing stem cells, although they were introduced manually. Michael Vassar, its president, was previously the president of the Singularity Institute of which Kurzweil was a director. I learned an immense amount from their presentation; it helped me orient myself and think far into the future.

Additionally, I met several 20Under20, Startup Chile Entrepreneurs, and MIT Biotech entrpenuers some of whom were backed by the enigmatic Peter Thiel as well, while at an anarcho-capitalist entrepreneurship event in the Lithuanian countryside (the ideology doesn’t inform my decision personally but it seems to be the prevalent political belief among these communities) . This leads me to my next step..

Step 2:

If I learned one thing from this group, is that if my career goals are similar to theirs, two things need to happen before I return to any type of formal education program after I, essentially, finish college this semester.

The first is, I need to exhaust every Mooc (Massive Online Open course) and free material relating to the subject of interest before I even consider applying to a terminal degree in say, Bio-Molecular Engineering or Bio-Informatics. Anki is one effective software for increasing recollection of complex subjects in minimal time.

I should add, that the best way to learn is to teach, so I also need to create some kind of space for myself where I can synthesis, internalize, and share the information I’m taking in. I’m thinking Youtube, and in fact in 3 weeks I will be heading over to Thailand to learn, primarily, some video editing techniques at Mahidol University. I’ll be sure to send you my channel when it’s ready.

Step 3:

The other thing I must do, is have some entrepreneurial success. I’m 21, so the subject matter can still be far removed from 3dPrinitng. While in Lithuania, I met a young man by the name of Ben Yu, Founder of the wildly successful Sprayable Caffeine. His ultimate goal is to contribute to one of several technologies that he believes may increase human lifespans and healthspans by centuries. But currently, Sprayable Caffiene is garnering him the career capital that he can later on trade in for something closer to his ultimate goal. I should pursue a praiseworthy project like that at some point, as well as some quieter investments through which i can increase my personal wealth and mobility.

http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/20/sprayable-energy/

Step 4:

We don’t always talk about it but there is a component to Entrepreneurship that is really just personal development. Put simply, the type of optimism and fail-foward attitude one sees in the best examples of entrepreneurs are learned skills. This is perhaps the area I need the most work in. Travel and meditation are, according to many people I trust, the best two tools to remedy this. The first puts you  out of context so that you get used to constantly seeking and adapting to new things. The latter teaches you to focus and be in the moment. To that end, I will be traveling to Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, and Myanmar in the coming months and I will be doing just that.

Step 5:

Figure our what are the technical skill I need and get hands-on practice. This will likely, be accomplished at Genspace and similar venues. This is a constantly moving-target since I can’t predict what will be relevant when I’m back from circumnavigating the world.

Step 6:

Think about and prepare for the types of  programs I’d like to get into. At the top of the list is FutureMed, a program run by Singularity University and housed in the NASA space center. It is an incubator and accelerator for high-risk, speculative medical projects. Enough said.

Let’s talk future timeline. What can we reasonably expect these next couple of decades?

Futurist and current head of engineering at Google, Ray Kurzweil believes the 2020’s will be the roaring decade for bioprinting.

“We can already experimentally print out organs by printing a biodegradable scaffolding and then populating it with a patient’s own stem cells, all with a 3D printer. By the early 2020s, this will reach clinical practice.” – Kurzweil on CNN
If this is the case, and I tend to believe it is, what components of the process will require substantial improvements? I’ve identified the following:

1. The ability to model an organ, including its vascular architecture. This requires improvements in Big Data management, analysis, and visualization. With something as complex as biology, it’s petabytes we’re talking about.

2. Refined isolation and differentiation of stem cells into organ-specific cells. Stem cells promote growth and rejuvenation of surrounding cells, They can also become specialized cells themselves. We can have them do this in smaller quantities quite efficiently. We need them to do this in the trillions.

3. Even more precise 3d Printing technology, at the nano-scale.

4. A complex process for bioprinting that can auto-correct as it proceeds. Currently, adding functional cells and engineering  stem cells, are two different processes. They would need to be combined and subjected to the same feedback loop.

5. Better Incubation technology, perhaps even incubation integrated right into the printing process. This is would ensure that the organ you’re fabricating behaves as if its within a body when it is, in fact, incomplete.

As you can see, the refinement of 3d-Printing encompasses several disciplines including, Data Sciences, Computer/Software Science, Robotics, Materials Science, Stem Cell Science,  Imaging Technology, and Nanotechnology.

My interest in Bioprinting arose because of health issues that plague my family. Both my sister and I suffer from a number of degenerative, life-limiting health conditions, including scoliosis. Bioprinting and its related technologies are the ultimate expression of the emerging technologies that will ensure in the near future, that health problems such as these do not become a barrier to living a full and productive life.

As these technologies continue to propagate, so too must a cultural shift occur that facilitates their introduction into mainstream consciousnesses. Bioprinting is expensive and experimental. It is the concept, custom-built Lamborghini of future medicine. However, what has become know as the Biohacking and Quantified Self communities have been largely responsible for increasing societal acceptance of innovative health technologies at the opposite end of the spectrum by promoting affordable devices and approaches to taking control of one’s health.

I am both a Biohacker and a Quantified Self enthusiast.

I monitor my sleep patterns, including the proportion of deeps sleep, to REM sleep, to light sleep using a device called the ZEO and alter them with timed doses of melatonin.

I fall asleep instantly using the Fisher Wallace Cranial Electro Stimulation Unit by running a low frequency current through the front of my brain.

I use the HeartMath EmWave to monitor my Heart Rate Variability, a measure calm and focus one can improve through training (commonly known as being in the zone).

I could go on, but the point here is that this movement is important to bioprinting. On the what hand, it is propagating interest in  self-directed quantification and intervention in one’s own biology, raising market demand for devices that do so, which will eventually trickle-up to the high-end machines including the advance MRI bio-scanning techniques that enable us to digitize biological structures. In doing so, its also forcing us to learn how to manage Big Bio-Data. The best example of this, is the 100-fold decrease in price of genome analyses as it became available on the market.

Additionally, with its advocacy of P4 medicine, an approach to medicine that is Personal, Preventive, Personalized, and Participatory, it’s also making us healthier overall more likely to be able to to not need, resist, and recover from such an invasive procedure.

Lastly, its permeating pop-culture, and ensuring that these seemingly far-fetched projections are taken serious by consumers and investors. Once people witness the profound changes that these cheap approaches can have on their lives and performances, multi-layered 3d bio-fabrications doesn’t seem unfeasible, and its onset becomes increasingly desired.

Brace yourselves for bio-printing culture.

For a sampling of what this movement entails, check out a Meetup I used to organize (and still visit quite often).
http://www.meetup.com/Biohackers-NYC/

Also, visit Genspace, a do-it-yourself community Biology Lab in Brooklyn that should soon have a rudimentary bio-printing device. They hold workshops where lay-people can learn MIT-level biotech applications, and even hold exhibitions by bio-artists.
http://genspace.org/

From my perspective, there are three tiers of companies important to the realm of 3dPrinting

Tier 1.

The first are those companies creating and refining technologies related or peripheral to 3dPrinting. This includes companies like Bosystems Bespoke and Ortema which are fabricating 3d-printed prosthetic. Currently, these companies print entire synthetic limbs, but in the near future, their focus may shift to printing skeletal structures over which bio-printed organic materials may be added.

It also includes companies like Silicon Valley Instruments and numerous others, that are improving medical imaging technologies. These will allow doctors to digitize parts of the body with enough precision so that more patient-specific replacements can then produced. This instrumentation is analogous to the desktop 3d Scanner, but with nano-level precision. Lastly, improvements in small-scale surgery and regenerative medicine will be crucial in unleashing the potential of BioPrinting.

As for the former, companies like Laser Nanosurgery LCC are currently pitching at events like Mass challenge for start-up funds. When refined, they will allow for more precise removal, delivery of drugs, and preparation of the body area receiving the 3dPrinted transplant.
http://www.nanowerk.com/nanotechnology/nanomaterial/nanobiomedicine_alist.php?page=2&letter=N

As for the latter, companies like MitoStem, among many others, are developing stem cells technologies. This is important because stem cells can rejuvenate other cells to which they are in close proximity, and transform themselves into the required cell types. This alleviates the level of uncertainty caused by the secondary effects of the surgical procedure. In other words, the former technologies minimize surgical damage to surrounding tissues and the latter stem cell technologies  patch-up whatever damage does occur rapidly.

Tier 1 consists of many, many companies, currently numbering in the thousands.

Tier 2

Is the 3d-Printing companies themselves. Currently there are only three. (loosely defined)

The publicly traded Organovo which we have discussed in detail. This company current goal is to provide living materials on which we can test drug toxicity. This is what is known in the trade as the “official spiel”. Their long-term goals, revealed  in their founder’s Ted Talks, are much more inspiring. This companies technology is being use in universities around the world and on a variety of applications.

Parabon Labs, also publicly traded, is developing what they call the Essemblix Platform in partnership with Johnson & Johnson. The scope of their printing, however is molecular rather than the tissue-level considerations of Organovo. The process involves nano-printing active drug compounds and their organic macro-molecular encasing. In other words they are printing very small substances, some of which are indistinguishable from substances that naturally occur in the human body. Additionally, they experimenting with using these molecules to “high-jack” DNA machinery into producing more of the desired substance.
This is the future of pharmacy.

Modern Meadow, founded by Andras Forgacs and his father Gabor Forgacs (founder of Organovo). This company’s aim to BioPrint market-ready 3d animal products. Their ultimate goal is to provide a healthier, and less environmentally-taxing alternative to meats from farm-raised animals. That is, cheap, 3d Printed meat that humans can consume.  For the time being, they are focused on fabricating better leather products, as dermal cells are less complex than muscle cells.

Tier 3.
This Tier is for companies, organizations, and entrepreneurs investing in BioPrinting.

J. Craig Venter (Celera Genomics, a Quest Diagnostics subsidiary)
Johnson & Johnson
Pfizer is looking to buy a team that patented a 3d Printing Hair Restoration technology. (although it unclear if they’re being bought to suppress or actually propagate the method.)

The best example is Peter Thiel, PayPal founder and Billionaire who has outfitted Modern Meadow with at least 250,000 dollars in funding.

While at the class MakerSpace, I played primarily with the Spinbots, a clever DIY, battery-powered device that draws a circular path as it spins.

I chose this activity, because there is something about automation that I find very appealing about Automation. Of knowing that once adjusted, you can have an object run a predictable sequence for all eternity (or until the battery runs out).

It was the first time I had encountered this device, yet its form revealed its function almost immediately. Assembly consisted of a base with an attached battery module and a vibrating/rotating motor, and three detachable “legs”, one containing a slot for the marker of your choice. I appreciated the minimalist design, it made wonder how it could inform other that of other devices that supervene on systematic motion.
Once unleashed, the Spinbot drew at least 100,000 circular objects. So the making was in preparing the tool, and in using it. In fact, using it required less of our participation than preparing it, the opposite of traditional mediums like brush and canvas.  From that insight, I learned that in art, the genius is sometimes in doing differently what people would least guess can be done differently.

Given more time, I would play with Makey Makey. I was able to play Beethoven fifth on bits of clay and a potato, but i don’t fully understand it.

Makerspace experience – due before class Nov. 20th:

(I’d prefer to not show my face, thanks for understanding)

A computer instructs the printer with a blue-print file in accordance with the desired cell type. The Organovo device consists of a stepper motor attatched to a robotic arm that orients the pump head, not at all dissimilar from the Makerbot in concept.

Two syringes are prepared. The first contains the cell-type that is the focus of the current procedure, lets say the parenchymal (functional) cells of the kidney nephron. They are usually contained in some kind of spheroid hydrogel encasing, making the entire medium look like an ink to the unaided human observer (thus the trade name BioInk). The second syringe is loaded with supplementary cell-types, structural cells, growth factors and what is known as a hydrogel. The first three components aid the growth and fusion process while the last provides a temporary 2-dimensional scaffolding.

The second syringe begins printing a hexagonal or honeycomb-patterned layer of mold. A feedback loop forms between the immediately deposited material and a triangulation sensor; this orients the tip of the syringe in real-time. In other words, the sensor allows the device to correct-course throughout the entire process.
This is important because cells are alive. Recent dermal cell bio-printing demonstrations by Wake Forest university, where a live patient with 3rd degree burns had his skin directly printed onto a wound, showcase why it is important the BioPrinter be able to accommodate for uncertainty.

A layer of parenchymal cells is deposited. At this stage, the plate may be removed and incubated, or the process may be repeated until you have several, alternating layers of cells and hydro-gel mold on top of each other.
The hydro-gel dissolves as the the extracellular matrix and the distinct cells continues to fuse inside the incubator.

Just as chemistry supervenes on physics and biology supervenes on chemistry, BioPrinting supervenes on 3d Printing. For this reason it can trace its origins to the invention of stereo-lithography by inventor Charles Hull in 1984, a technology that uses an additive layering process to render 3d digital designs as 3d physical objects. Once the photo-polymer is cured under UV light, you have a tangible version of whatever you were previously looking at on-screen.

Bio-printing’s first breakthrough occurred in 1996 when scientists Gabor Forgacs and his team began experimenting with live cells. They noticed that the cells had a tendency to organize according to their genetic programming even when outside of the animal. Furthermore the extra-cellular matrix that the cells produced, would initially be liquid and become less so as the cells matured. This window of opportunity  allowed the cells to be shaped prior to maturing and was analogous to the UV curing method utilized in materials science. That insight inspired the further development of these technologies.

In 2000, a a human bladder was increased in size using a synthetic scaffold in a live patient. Although the cells had not been printed, they had been engineered and “taught” how to behave. When introduced to the synthetic scaffolding they arranged themselves as they would have in nature, immensely decreasing the possibility of rejection. This behavior of cells to behave as if “within the body” and arrange themselves even when grown outside the body in no particular arrangement gained prominence among scientific communities. Subsequently, research teams around the world searched for “killer” applications. Over the next decade entire organs (Hearts, kidneys, and lungs) were grown to functioning states (although not implantable) on collagen scaffolding.

In 2003, a Professor from the University of Texas at Paso outfitted an inkjet printer with a cell deposition unit. This advancement, however rudimentary, proved that an additive printing process could deliver cells onto a scaffold with precision. It was only a year later that Forgacs reemerged with a method of depositing only cells, sans the scaffold, keeping them healthy enough to produce their own extra-cellular matrix and structural proteins.

http://www.wakehealth.edu/Research/WFIRM/Our-Story/Inside-the-Lab/Bioprinting.htm

The technology develops for 5 years and in 2009 Organovo, a company founded by Forgacs, introduces the Novogen MMX BioPrinter, the first market-ready version of their technology. In 2009, they print nervous tissue, followed by blood vessels in 2010, cardiac tissue in 2011, and lung tissue in 2012. Universities, notably Wake Forest, followed suit with their own versions of the technology.
Currently, they are experimenting with printing entire livers and they have reportedly done so with only a 10 day time-frame. It will still be about a decade, however, before they are of sufficient quality that they can be transplanted.

11/11 – The History and Origins of BioPrinting

11/18- Highlight of Current Methodologies

12/1- BioPrinting Entrepreneurs

12/8- Bioprinting Culture: Personal Interest & the Biohacking Connection

12/14 – Future Diagnostics

12/15- How Will I Break Into the Industry?