IISc Partners With Cellink To Set Up First-Of-Its-Kind Centre Of Excellence For 3D Bioprinting In India

The Indian Institute of Science has partnered with Sweden-based Cellink, a global leader in developing 3D bioprinters, to set up a centre of excellence (CoE) for 3D bioprinting in India.

The CoE, the first of its kind in the subcontinent, will be housed in the Centre for BioSystems Science and Engineering (BSSE) at the Bengaluru-based IISc.

The centre will provide access to 3D bioprinting systems, enabling researchers to accelerate their work across critical applications, with the ultimate goal of improving health outcomes.

An MoU was signed to formalise the collaboration between IISc and Cellink last week.

3D bioprinting is the application of additive manufacturing techniques to live cells, growth factors and/or biomaterials to fabricate biomedical parts, often with the aim to mimic natural tissue characteristics, the IISc said in a statement.

The new CoE will house several state-of-the-art 3D bioprinters from Cellink and will serve as a hub for several research initiatives and training activities related to this emerging and exciting technology.

“The CoE will contribute towards exploring new pathways in 3D bioprinting research and technology development. This would also align very well with the new initiative that we have launched to establish a post graduate medical school at IISc. I hope that the interdisciplinary collaboration through the CoE will create new medical technologies for affordable healthcare," said IISc director Professor Govindan Rangarajan.

IISc and Cellink will work together to conduct workshops aimed at providing researchers within the institute, and elsewhere, the skills necessary to utilise 3D bioprinting in their work and reap the benefits of 3D cell culture.

In addition, IISc and Cellink will also undertake and advise on research projects across multiple applications spanning the fields of tissue engineering, drug discovery, material science and regenerative or personalised medicine.

The Centre will have a keen focus on work around the heart, bone, cartilage and cancer, according to the IISC statement.