Most of us have come across the thought that, what if one could get a new kidney instead of waiting for a donor in case of a kidney failure? The idea of printing human organs that can replace the worn out or damaged organs has been a dream for scientists around the world. To date the dream to print a fully functional organ is still beyond the clouds, but the work is already underway to print tissues of various organs. Allevi, Inc., a Philadelphia, PA based company, is building tools to design and engineer with life. Allevi’s 3D bioprinters and bioinks are used by leading researchers all around the world to find solutions to humanity’s most difficult problems – to cure disease, to test novel drugs, to eliminate the organ waiting list, to build with life.
Allevi’s mission is to make it easy to design and engineer 3D tissues. Hence, the organization created its desktop 3D bioprinter to be the most versatile, powerful and easy-to-use bioprintering platform on the market. Since Allevi’s humble beginnings, it has grown to serve hundreds of labs in all corners of the world and has become the leader in the biofabrication revolution.
The Creator
As the Co-founder and CEO of Allevi, Ricky Solorzano guides the vision, strategy and day to day operation of the organization. He has been obsessed with tissue engineering for more than 10 years, and created the first 3D bioprinter out of his dorm room. Ricky completed his Bachelor of Science degree in Bioengineering from University of Pennsylvania and worked as Research Assistant in University of Pennsylvania Health System and in Penn Engineering’s Tissue Microfabrication Laboratory. Later in 2014, Ricky Co-founded Allevi, to help scientist create more accurate hearts, lungs, and even brains in the lab.
Printers that can Print Cells When it comes to offering ground breaking products, Allevi offers four different products with different footprints and features;
- Allevi 1: This printer uses the Clima-All-In-One extruder, autocalibration, UV and blue light LED photocuring and 5micron precision on X,Y,Z.
- Allevi 2: This printer uses two extruders, that go either from room temperature to 70 degrees C and 160 degrees C, and 5 micron precision on X,Y,Z..
- Allevi 3: As the name suggests, this printer uses three Clima-All- In-One extruders, Autocalibration and 1 micron precision on X,Y,Z.
- Allevi 6: As you might have guessed, this printer comes with six Clima-All-In-One extruders, autocalibration, and, additionally, it has 1 micron precision on X,Y,Z, heated and cooled build plate, print monitor camera and extruder view camera. – the most powerful printer in its class.
When the Specialty is to Print Cells
As per the organization, the biggest challenge is definitely the symphony of things that need to work together to make the overall solution work. 3D printing is basically a mixture of robotics, software, and material science. For Allevi, it still uses robotics and software but its added layer of complexity is printing cells. Printing with life is truly where Allevi derives its specialty. The next step for the organization is to provide kits that are more tissue specific for drug testing. To achieve this we will need to work with biologist around the world.
Medicine Driving in a Personalized Direction
Allevi finds it interesting how the globe is moving to fulfill the demand of more personalized regional products, as well as the demand for sustainable products. The company believes, in this era of mass production, the new generations are much more concerned about the factors like where products are bought, who makes them, and how do they benefit not only themselves but the whole local community. According to Allevi, soon 3D printing will play a much greater role in providing these much more regionalized, sustainable products for new market demands.
Nowadays, medicine is also driving in much more personalized direction. Informed patients comprehend that tailored medications will drive more efficient and effective results for their treatments. This is particularly true when it comes to either more chronic or cancerous diseases. Therefore, 3D bioprinting will enable physicians to print out patient’s disease tissue to study drugs to understand the personalized prognosis for specific patients in a quick fashion. Likewise, physicians will also be able to print personalized therapeutics and medical devices in the future. Allevi believes the future of medicine is personalized, and it is excited to be foundational in catalyzing this revolution.
