Laboratory’s Head of Research, Vladimir Mironov, heralded the event during the lectures he delivered fr om March 13-17, 2015 at the Renato Archer Center of Information Technologies (CTI) and the Brazil National Center of Metrology (INMETRO) located not far to Rio de Janeiro. The lecture was named “The First Organ Printed.”

In the fall of 2014, during the presentation of Russia’s first bioprinter, FABION (a combination of words “fabrication” and “bio”), the laboratory’s Head of Research, Professor Vladimir Mironov, spoke to journalists heralding his near-term plans. Only 5 months later, a thyroid gland was successfully printed. It was a construct of a mouse thyroid gland. A lot of work still remains to be done. Vladimir Mironov: “In the next several months we will repeatedly verify functionality of the printed thyroid gland on experimental animals in hypothyreosis model.”

Therefore, bioprinting has been successful. Now the team has a lot of research work to do. The printed construct has to be transplanted into an experimental animal, which is then to be permanently watched by specialists. In essence, the procedure is similar to conventional organ transplantation, where physicians watch how a donor organ takes and functions in the patient’s organism. These studies will take some time. Final results about the printed organ’s functionality are expected to be announced no sooner than toward the end of this year.

Official presentation of preliminary results of assessing the functionality of a printed organ transplanted into an experimental animal is scheduled to take place at the Second International Congress on Bioprinting in Singapore in July 2015, wh ere the congress’ keynote speaker Professor Vladimir Mironov, Head of Research of 3D Bioprinting Solutions, will herald the results.

“This is an obvious breakthrough in the field of regenerative medicine, -- Vladimir Mironov stressed. -- We’ve successfully demonstrated what the Russia’s first bioprinter can do. We continue performing validation studies, while testing and optimizing our 3D bioprinting technology.” “I must say, there is hardly any doubt about the ability of the transplanted construct to work as a substitute of a lost or defective gland of the experimental mouse on the level of the organism, -- Vladimir Mironov explained, -- since our theoretical and morphometrical studies have convincingly proven that the printed construct contains more then enough of thyroid gland’s functional follicular cells.”

The choice of thyroid gland as the first organ to be printed was not accidental. The organ is relatively simple in structure and very convenient for studies and tests. Incidentally, thyroid gland was the first organ ever transplanted into a human. According to available statistics, thyroid cancer is annually diagnosed in over 5,000 people in Russia alone. According to WHO, 665 million people suffer from thyroid pathologies in the world today. Cancer-induced thyroid disfunctions cannot be therapeutically cured.

Recent achievements of domestic science allow us to state with confidence that Russia is entering the club of world leaders in organ bioprinting. The printing of an organ construct performed at 3D Bioprinting Solutions has pushed the industry’s potential up to a fundamentally new level and will bring about fundamental changes in public health care and pharmacology as well as in the industries and the economy in general. At this moment, the Laboratory for Biotechnological Research is giving priority to research work while gathering and reviewing data for a planned publication in one of the top rated research magazines.

A press conference highlighting the first event of organ printing, the printing of a mouse thyroid gland construct, will take place at 68 Kasirskoye Highway, Bldg. 2, Moscow, on March 26, 2015, at 12 noon (accreditation from 11.30 a.m.).

The press conference will be hosted by:

• Head of Research of the Laboratory for Biotechnological Research of 3D Bioprinting Solutions Vladimir Mironov;

• Candidate of Medical Sciences, cancer physician, plastic surgeon, head of the Microsurgery Dapartement of the P.A. Herzen Moscow Oncology Research Institute Andrey Polyakov;

• Professor, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Vice Principal for Research at the I.M.Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University Vladimir Nikolenko;

• Head of the Laboratory for Biotechnological Research of 3D Bioprinting Solutions Yelena Bulanova, Executive Director of the Laboratory for Biotechnological Research of 3D Bioprinting Solutions Yousef D. Hesuani.

Accreditation is available by e-mail: inna@bioprintig.ru

Contact person: Inna Pantyulina, PR Director of the Laboratory for Biotechnological Research of 3D Bioprinting Solutions.