Biotechnology
Invivo BAT
Sciperio's aims to create enabling in vivo and in vitro tools, technologies, materials, and procedures for regenerative medicine and engineering of custom tissue systems, on demand and in real time.
The Invivo BAT development team's aims are to make a significant contribution towards the development of curative engineered tissue constructs (ETC's). The solution resides in the pending creation of engineered tissues, or neo-organs, that can be used to detect, prevent, and/or cure diseases. Sciperio's direct-write tools that are compatible with minimally invasive surgery (MIS) techniques and in vivo use are named Invivo BAT, while their counterpart tabletop direct-write tools for in vitro use are simply Biological Architectural Tool (BAT). Specific examples of how these can be used to detect, prevent, and/or cure are discussed further below.
Using the Invivo BAT model, clinicians and tissue engineers will be able to survey, diagnose, and construct new tissues via endoscopically manipulated vision, nonthermal tissue removal, and a direct-write tissue deposition apparatus. Ultraprecise microdispensing nozzles will be used to construct vascularized 3D tissue scaffolds and living cells. Biodegradable tissue scaffolding will be as common in the future, using Invivo BAT technologies, as dissolvable sutures are today.
The Curative Invivo BAT Construct
The Sciperio team's aim is to create enabling in vivo and in vitro tools, technologies, materials, and procedures for regenerative medicine and engineering of custom tissue systems, on demand and in real time. A specific goal of modern molecular medicine is to channel multipotent human cells with high proliferative capacities into specified differentiation programs within the body. Realization of this goal requires the development of new TE "tools" capable of producing 3D support structures with cell microenvironments specifically tailored to achieve normal tissue morphogenesis, vascularization, and tissue/organ functions.
The goal of the Invivo BAT direct-deposition machine is the fabrication of in vivo ETC's using advanced MIS techniques, vision and diagnostic imaging systems, biological sensing systems, ultrashort-pulse-laser tissue ablation, and the fabrication and assembly of 3D tissue constructs. The tool will be able to deposit a wide variety of cells (e.g., stem cells, endothelial cells, chondrocytes, T-cells, dendritic cells), growth factors, nutrients, extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins, and biocompatible structural materials with exquisite precision.
The engineering of whole organs, once consigned to science fiction, is now conceivable. In fact, with the BAT and Invivo BAT, it is potentially realizable in a few years. The ability to control the spatial deposition of cells and bioactive factors at the cellular scale inside the body with the HAT is an essential enabler of tissue engineering, with its long-range vision being the ability to create customized, reproducible, 3D, vascularized neo-organs. It has the potential to propel regenerative medicine in a manner similar to the way photolithography tools have transformed the microelectronics industry.