BIOLIFE4D plans to bring several scientific advancements to the market in the short term – advancements that could both significantly improve the quality of life for people suffering from early stage heart challenges who don’t require a complete transplant and offer significant commercial market opportunities.

BIOLIFE4D believes it has a competitive advantage over companies focused on the biofabrication of other organs. Hearts are different because unlike other organs, hearts have components that are potentially life-saving on their own. These components represent significant market advancements and we refer to them as our Scientific Milestones, each of which individually represent potential multi-billion dollar markets, have the capacity to help millions of people, and are all on our path to our full heart.

Read on… Just a few of BIOLIFE4D’s Scientific Milestones include our cardiac patch, mini-heart, mitral and aortic valves, and our small diameter vascular grafts. 

Scientific Milestone: Cardiac Patch

BIOLIFE4D’s cardiac patch is a 3D bioprinted vascularized and conducting cardiac patch derived from iPS cells used to augment contractile activity of the heart after a person has a heart attack or other incident of damage. Our cardiac patch, therefore, is a living heart patch which would restore lost capacity in the damaged area of the heart and thus improve the overall function of the heart.

Update: Milestone reached June, 2018

 Scientific Milestone: “Mini-Heart“

BIOLIFE4D’s “Mini-Heart” is a 3D bioprinted mini version of a human heart (about the size of a mouse heart) based on a scaled version of all of the geometries of a full-sized human heart. Our Mini-Heart will consist of four chambers, vascularization, and have the capacity for cardiac conduction. It could be used by pharmaceutical companies to run cardiac toxicity screenings as well as to provide better predictive results of new drugs and therapies as compared to existing animal models.  It also has the potential to significantly reduce the number of animals currently used for testing purposes. 

 Update: Milestone: proof of concept April, 2019

Scientific Milestone: Mitral and Aortic Heart Valves for Replacement

BIOLIFE4D’s replacement mitral and aortic heart valves are 3D bioprinted cardiac valves derived from iPS cells used to replace damaged or leaking heart valves. Our replacement valves could solve various challenges experienced with  current replacement valve procedures allowing the new valves to grow with the patient, remain viable for the patient in the long term and eliminate the need for blood thinners to prevent clots.

Scientific Milestone: Vascular Grafts

BIOLIFE4D’s  vascular grafts are 3D bioprinted tri-layered tubular grafts derived from iPS cells lined with smooth muscle cells and fibroblasts to prevent clots. Our grafts would be matched to coronary arteries and would be used to replace damaged or otherwise non-functional coronary arteries in coronary by-pass surgeries.