Kwambio launches ADAM project for bioprinting organic bones
The project expects to begin preclinical trials later this year
Ceramic 3D printing specialist Kwambio has launched its latest initiative, ADAM, in collaboration with WeFund Ventures. ADAM is a biotechnical initiative aimed at facilitating the production of bioprinted organic bone structures. The platform is currently undergoing regulatory requirement testing and plans to begin preclinical trials this year.
ADAM will be operated separately from Kwambio and will be run by a team of medical specialists. The ADAM project is based at the BioCT Innovation Commons in Groton, Connecticut and has backing from a number of reputable sources, including STANLEY and TechStars.
In the simplest terms, ADAM will offer a cloud-based digital library that will host patient-specific CT scans and leverage new 3D printing materials to create 3D bioprinted organic bone structures for implanting. The ambitious project hopes to contribute to the medical field by offering patient-specific bone implants that could potentially save lives.
As the ADAM website reads: “Doctors would no longer have to take a bone graft from another bone or search for a bone donor. They can now simply scan the area and model the structure of the new bone. Once 3D printed, a bone can then be implanted into a patient. Ideally, the bone graft will dissolve as new bone grows, reducing the need for more surgery.”
The materials are at the core of the ADAM initiative and include a modified biopolymer based on polycaprolactone with the addition of hydroxyapatite that displays high strength and good bioresorbaility, and a ceramic bio-glass based on hydroxyapatite and borosilicate glass, which reacts with bone tissue to connect with the implant and stimulate osteogenesis. Both materials have undergone successful testing at Lund University in Sweden.
The ceramic bioglass material could be used to print bones to treat patients with bone defects in areas that perform protective and skeletal functions, such as the skull and upper and lower jaws. The modified biopolymer, for its part, is suitable for treating defects in tubular bones. The bones will be 3D printed using Kwambio’s Ceramo Two and Ceramo Zero Max binder jetting 3D printers.
“120,000 people are in the waiting list for organ transplants in the USA,” said Volodymyr Usov, CEO at ADAM. “Over 1 million people have the same needs all over the world. New technologies aim to solve this problem, and ADAM is the first ever opportunity to print organic bones. The key reason for us to launch this project is to help people save their lives.”
Denys Gurak, partner at WeFund Ventures and Chairman of the Board at ADAM, added: “We do believe in the potential of the team, which previously has launched successful 3D printing projects that already gained a lot of attention. And we hope that ADAM will bring this endeavour for innovations to the next level.”
ADAM is currently preparing to launch a cloud-based digital library for CT scans. Later this year, the initiative will start its first preclinical studies in Ukraine. If all goes according to plan, clinical trials will begin in 2020.
