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Sciperio Awarded the Frost & Sullivan’s 2004 Product Leadership Award

Frost & Sullivan’s 2004 Product Leadership Award in the field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine goes to Sciperio, Inc. in recognition of the company’s design, in collaboration with BioAssembly Inc and the University of Arizona, of a device that will allow tissue-engineering scientists to design and produce de novo, living tissue structures in much the same way that automotive manufacturers now design and produce cars.

Known as the “BioAssembly Tool” (BAT), this device combines the principles of computer-aided design and manufacturing (known as “CAD/CAM”) with the materials and concepts of biology, medicine, and tissue engineering, to create heterogeneous, three-dimensional, living tissue constructs in vitro. To do this, the BAT can directly deposit cells, bioactive factors, and supportive scaffolding, selectively and in real time, in a layer-by-layer fashion. The tool, similar in many ways to a 3-D printer, allows tissue designers to take an image from an magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan or a computerized tomography (CT) scan, which are 3-D representations of the tissues, and then literally hit ‘print.’ But instead of using ink, the device uses cells, biomaterials, and biomolecules in order to replicate the endogenous tissue, or create a functionally-equivalent tissue.

Sciperio was selected to receive Frost & Sullivan’s Product Leadership Award based on the fact that, by combining well-established technologies in computer-aided design with the special considerations required for the delicate, sterile handling of living cells, the company has created a product that has the potential to revolutionize the field of tissue engineering.

Award Description

Frost & Sullivan’s Product Leadership Award is bestowed on the company that has best demonstrated a superior ability to develop and/or advance innovative products vis-a-vis products from competing vendors. This award recognizes the company’s successful adoption or invention of new technology that has been initiated within the past year to become a part of a well-designed product family. This award also recognizes the company’s successful product development strategies and the degree the product has met customer stated needs and requirements. Such innovation is expected to significantly contribute to the industry in terms of market acceptance.

Research Methodology

To choose the award recipient, Frost & Sullivan’s analyst team tracks developments in a particular field of technology with a set of predetermined qualitative and quantitative measurements. The selection process includes primary participant interviews and/or interviews with end users, distributors, suppliers as well as extensive primary and secondary research via the bottom-up approach. Companies’ products are analyzed based on the degree of innovation, the estimated market penetration rate, and the acceptance of the product by intended end users. Industry participants are ranked and the top performing company is chosen for the award.