Revolutionary silk-based bioink for 3D printing of ex vivo bone marrow models to advance drug development and personalized medicine

Aim: The SILKink project aims to develop a breakthrough biocompatible hydrogel, i.e., a bioink, to 3D print bone marrow tissue models that can be used for robust culture of human stem cells.

The use of silk as the basis for novel bioinks (SILKink) helps to recreate tailored bone marrow-like microenvironments that will enable new applications in drug development and personalized medicine for bone marrow diseases.

Here, we aim to optimize and validate SILKink, further define the business opportunity, and found an investment-ready spin-off company to commercialize SILKink.Unmet need: Bone marrow stem cells are fragile and require highly specific surroundings to survive and differentiate, therefore the presence of a soft tissue environment mimicking the human bone marrow is critical for reproducible culturing of these cells.

There is a large unmet need for reproducible solutions that mimic the soft tissue of the bone marrow to allow advancements in drug development and personalized medicine approaches for bone marrow diseases.Solution: We will develop SILKink: a revolutionary bioink that is uniquely based on silk to closely mimic the 3D soft tissue environment of the bone marrow.

SILKink will provide a matrix that supports all bone marrow cells including hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells and allows to 3D print ex vivo bone marrow stem cell models in the shape or volume desired.Consortium: University of Pavia (UNIPV) and partner CELLINK have developed the SILKink prototype during FET Open project SilkFUSION and co-own the background IP.

Partner Catalyze-Group Venture Building Team (CAT) will bring commercial expertise to develop an optimal market access strategy for SILKink. UNIPV will be responsible for SILKink optimization, manufacturing, and validation. CELLINK will be involved in product optimization and responsible for product development.

CAT will assist UNIPV with founding a spin-off company to commercialize SILKink and making it investment-ready.