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The breakthrough was achieved by CELLINK’s longtime customer CTIBIOTECH and the NOVOPLASM Research Consortium by leveraging 3D bioprinted skin and cold plasma wound healing treatment

Today CELLINK, a leader in 3D bioprinting, announced that its BIO X has enabled the production of the world’s first immunized skin model. The breakthrough was achieved by CELLINK’s customer and partner of more than four years, CTIBIOTECH, a French regenerative medicine company. The technology was achieved by converging technologies that include 3D bioprinting, tissue engineering and human cells, biological materials and proteins.

“CTIBIOTECH invested several million euros in the past seven years in industrialization of human tissue bioprinting (skin, liver, tumours etc.) for biomedical, pharmaceutical and dermocosmetics applications,” says Dr. Nico Forraz, Chief Executive Officer at CTIBIOTECH. “CELLINK’s BIO X provides a flexible technology platform to implement standardization of human tissue production.”

According to the World Health Organization, 11 million individuals suffer burns that require medical attention every year, and transplant options for burn victims are limited to skin grafts from the victims’ own body. Unfortunately, donated skin is often rejected and attacked by the recipient’s immune system, and both transplanted skin from one’s own body or a donors can leave significant scaring. By producing skin with immune cells, this breakthrough poised to be a gamechanger for burn victims by enabling the printing of skin.

“This breakthrough is a perfect use of the BIO X and reaffirms our steadfast commitment to pushing the boundaries of science,” says Itedale Namro Redwan, Chief Scientific Officer, CELLINK. “We’re proud to be working with CTIBIOTECH to accelerate solutions for public health issues and improve the lives of the millions who suffer from burn injuries each year.”

The advancement was developed in collaboration with the NOVOPLASM Consortium, a French government program consisting of the French Army Biomedical Research Institute, CTIBIOTECH, École Polytechnique, and Institute Pasteur with the goal of developing cold plasma technology for the treatment of infected burns and the wound healing of skin grafts. Cold plasma is a medical treatment that leverages extremely cold electrically charged gases to increase nitrogen and oxygen in tissue which help during burn recovery with infection control and tissue regeneration.

“3D Bioprinting is a key technology in CTIBIOTECH’s portfolio of human tissue production methods to support regenerative medicine and healthcare applications,” says Professor Colin McGuckin, President and Chief Scientific Officer at CTIBIOTECH. “With CELLINK’s BIO X combined with our proprietary tissue engineering protocols and expertise, we are now able to produce over 200 identical functional human skins (with immune cells, sebocytes, melanocytes etc.) from a single donor, to support validation of medical devices and other therapeutic strategies for burns patients.”

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