Bioprinted mini pancreas will assist in struggle in opposition to diabetes

EPFL spin-off Readily3D has developed a novel system with which biological tissue can be printed in just 30 seconds. The company’s technology is being used in a major European project to develop a living model of the pancreas for testing new drugs.

First, you’ll see it as a transparent shape on a computer screen – a small electronic replica of the human pancreas. Just 30 seconds later, the tissue is printed on a bioprinter, blood vessels and all from a sample of human stem cells. This amazing achievement is possible thanks to the revolutionary new technology developed in the Laboratory for Applied Photonic Devices (LAPD) of EPFL and further developed by Readily3D. Their technology was recently selected for the EU-funded Enlight * project, which aims to develop a reliable living model of the pancreas for testing diabetes drugs.

The pancreas is a vital organ just behind the stomach. It performs a variety of functions, such as making enzymes and bicarbonates, which are important for digestion, and secreting a wide variety of hormones – including insulin, the hormone that regulates blood sugar levels. As a result, pancreatic disease often leads to diabetes because the damaged cells can no longer produce the insulin the body needs.

Over 450 million adults around the world have diabetes, 60 million of them in Europe. In Switzerland, 4.4% of the population reported having been diagnosed with the disease in 2017. And the number of patients is growing worldwide. Diabetes is the second leading cause of amputation (after accidents) and increases the risk of a heart attack or stroke by a factor of eight and kidney failure (which requires dialysis) by a factor of nine. Diabetes is also the leading cause of blindness in adults. ** Methods to improve the diagnosis and treatment of diabetes could therefore bring significant public health benefits.

A first step

The bioprinting technology developed at EPFL uses a biological gel that contains a patient’s stem cells. A laser is applied to the gel to solidify it through polymerization. The location and intensity of the laser beam can be controlled to solidify only those areas of the gel that are needed to form the desired tissue. “One of the main advantages of our method is that it can create tissue in a single block, which makes it particularly useful for printing soft tissues like organs,” says Paul Delrot, CTO of Readily3D.

© 2021 EPFL / A. Herzog

Bioprinted fabrics offer numerous advantages. It can be tailored as it is made from a patient’s stem cells and no more animal testing is required. “In addition, patients don’t have to try a range of drugs, some of which can have unpleasant side effects, before finding the right one for them,” said Damien Loterie, CEO of Readily3D.

“The development of a system with which 3D tissue can be printed in the cubic centimeter range and the functioning of a living pancreas can be faithfully reproduced is a major challenge that we would like to face with this technology,” says Christophe Moser, head of the LAPD. Their technology could one day also be used to bioprint other types of tissue, for example to develop treatments for cancer or ultimately to make transplant organs.

* The Enlight project received funding from the EU framework program “Horizon 2020” in the amount of EUR 3.6 million to develop the first living model of the pancreas within the next three years. It is carried out by an interdisciplinary consortium led by UMC Utrecht, made up of EPFL and ETH Zurich in Switzerland, the University of Naples Federico II in Italy, AstraZeneca in Sweden, Rousselot in Belgium, Readily3D in Switzerland and the Giannino Bassetti Foundation in Switzerland makes up Italy.

** Sources: The IDF Diabetes Atlas 2019 of the International Diabetes Federation and the European Diabetes Study Center (CeeD).