Organovo Holdings, a pioneer in using 3D printing technology to make tissue for research, will announce Wednesday that it plans to create human liver tissue for transplant to patients.
Success would give people suffering from liver failure another option besides an organ transplant, or at least it could extend their lives as they await a transplant, the San Diego-based company said.
Keith Murphy, Organovo’s CEO, is scheduled to discuss the plans this afternoon at an annual meeting on cell-based therapies held in La Jolla.
The Cell and Gene Meeting on the Mesa, formerly called the Stem` Cell Meeting on the Mesa, is set to run from Wednesday through Friday. It attracts scientists and business leaders from the United States and internationally to San Diego’s biotech-rich environment on the Torrey Pines Mesa.
On Thursday evening, the public is invited to a free discussion on «Stem Cells, a History of Freedom, Hope and Reality.» That session is scheduled to take place from 5:45 to 6:45 p.m. at the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine, 2880 Torrey Pines Scenic Drive in La Jolla.
No registration is required, and audience members will be able to ask questions, said Morrie Ruffin, managing director of the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine, one of the conference’s organizers. The other coordinator is the Sanford Consortium
Sessions for Wednesday and Thursday will be held at the Estancia hotel, while Friday’s scientific session will take place at the nearby Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Go to meetingonthemesa.com for more information.
Meeting on the Mesa began 11 years ago as a one-day scientific symposium on stem cells, with a focus on the activities of local scientists. Over time, the conference has expanded to an international three-day event, two of which are devoted to the business applications of cell therapies, Ruffin said.
«This has become the major deal-making and business development event of the sector,» Ruffin said. «Throughout the course of the meeting, we’ve got several hundred individual meetings scheduled to take place.»
More than 800 people are expected to attend, including those representing a total of nearly 70 companies. About two dozen of the participating businesses are headquartered outside of the United States — in Australia, Belgium, Chile, Israel, Japan, Sweden and the United Kingdom. From the United States, 33 companies are headquartered outside of California, 11 inside California and two in San Diego County.
Some companies will make formal presentations, while many more will network informally. The scope of discussion has expanded along with the burgeoning categories of cell therapy.
For example, Organovo’s bioprinting process uses different matured cell types to create functional tissue. The cells are arrayed in a three-dimensional pattern that more closely resembles the environment cells experience in a living body than those grown in a traditional two-dimensional lab culture.
Organovo has sold its bioprinted liver cells for research purposes such as drug screening for toxicity, and says that preclinical tests indicate that in animal models, the liver tissue functions much like natural liver.
Fate Therapeutics, also based in San Diego, is clinically testing a product to prevent transplanted blood-forming stem cells from attacking their host, a worrisome complication in bone marrow transplants. More information on that clinical trial is available at: j.mp/fatehct.
Last month, Fate and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center announced a deal to develop engineered stem cells that can serve as designated “off the shelf” anti-cancer therapies. This morning at the meeting in La Jolla, Fate is scheduled to take part in a discussion on the topic of cellular cancer immunotherapy — a part of the search for ways to boost the body’s immune system so it can better fight cancer.
