The San Cecilio Clinic and the UGR apply 3D printing to surgery and investigate bioprinting of tissues from human cells
Both entities sign an agreement, supported by IBS.Granada, for the start-up of the first Andalusian Biofabrication and (bio) 3D printing laboratory that will allow advances in precision medicine
The San Cecilio Clinical University Hospital and the University of Granada (UGR) set up the first Andalusian Biofabrication and (bio) 3D printing laboratory called 'BioFab i3D Lab', which will allow progress in personalized and precision medicine. The Biosanitary Research Institute of Granada (IBS.Granada) is also part of this initiative focused on the application of 3D printing to anatomical models that contribute to improving surgery planning and reducing surgical times. Likewise, and in parallel, the agreement also offers the framework to investigate the bioprinting of tissues from human cells, as well as the future viability of its application to clinical practice.
This collaboration agreement pools the facilities, infrastructures, knowledge and personnel of these entities in order to move forward much faster to transfer these technologies and scientific advances to real patient cases, providing solutions adapted to their particular needs. A team of 3 professionals, researchers and clinicians, with different university degrees, including: doctors, biomedical and health engineers, biologists, pharmacists, biochemists, biotechnologists, physicists and bioinformaticians, will work in the BioFabi36D laboratory.
Patients with a wide variety of pathologies can benefit from joint work in this field between clinicians and researchers, including, among others, diseases of the musculoskeletal system, cardiovascular, urogenital system, digestive system and oncology.
BioFab i3D Lab, recognized by the University of Granada as a 'Singular Laboratory', already has two offices in the Health Technology Park that are very close to each other, but complementary; one located in the Biomedical Research Center (CIBM) of the UGR; and the other, in the Radiodiagnosis service of the San Cecilio Clinic, located on the ground floor of the hospital.
The rector of the University of Granada, Pilar Aranda, and the managing director of the San Cecilio Clinical Hospital, Manuel Reyes, signed the collaboration agreement today, in the hospital facilities, in the presence of the Health and Families delegate, Indalecio Sánchez-Montesinos, and, on behalf of ibs.GRANADA, the managing director of FIBAO, Sarah Biel. Once the signing was concluded, they visited the headquarters of the laboratory located in the Radiodiagnosis Area of the hospital in Granada.
Juan Antonio Marchal Corrales, professor at the Faculty of Medicine and head of the UGR's BioFab i3D Lab, stresses that the signing of this agreement represents "decided support from both institutions to bring cutting-edge research in biofabrication and 3D printing closer to the hospital environment ”. And, above all, it serves as a push "to offer health professionals innovative tools that allow them to obtain better clinical results and provide solutions adapted to the characteristics of each patient, to improve their quality of life," says Marchal.
For his part, José Luis Martín Rodríguez, head of the Radiodiagnosis service at the San Cecilio Clinic, highlights that "with the 3D printed models we intend to understand the specific anatomy of each patient and the specific pathological alterations that the organs of that individual present". In this way, "by having a three-dimensional physical support with which to practice, individualized surgical planning can be carried out that allows different treatments to be simulated to offer the best of them to the patient," says Martín. In this sense, it is a personalized improvement process that consists of better understanding, planning and treating the patient better.
Benefits for patients
The start-up of this laboratory and this collaboration between researchers and clinicians brings numerous benefits to patients. The main one is to offer a personalized response to their pathologies, quickly and with the fewest possible adverse effects associated with therapeutic intervention.
Regarding the application of 3D printing in human anatomical models for surgery, with it the clinical evaluation is improved and the time of planning and surgical intervention is reduced, as well as the hospital or ICU stay. Therefore, efficiency is increased and the general results of the patient are improved in terms of possible complications and clinical evolution.
It also provides benefits for professionals, since it facilitates their care work by improving preoperative preparation and reducing the risk of error during complex surgeries. Not surprisingly, the use of these techniques and technologies allows planning with a 3D model that behaves as closely as possible to anatomical tissue, with millimeter precision, eliminating improvisation and increasing patient safety.
In addition, it also offers great potential for use from the training point of view of resident specialists. Thus, the possibility of generating 3D anatomical models of patients with specific pathologies that make it possible to approach the best therapeutic solutions and evaluate the results of therapeutic action is very useful for learning.
Current and future lines
The main lines of action that have already begun to be developed at the headquarters of the laboratory located in the San Cecilio Clinic are: 3D printing of personalized biomodels for modeling the disease and improvement of the surgical approach and the operating times of the patients; the design and manufacture of surgical guides and pre-surgical models; and the generation of 3D printed digital anatomical models using different polymers and elastomers.
At the headquarters of the laboratory located in the CIBM, work is currently being done on the production of bioprinted biomimetic substitutes for normal tissues with application in prevalent pathologies, 3D bioprinting of bioprinted mimetic tumor models and metastasis-on-a-chip with application in cancer precision medicine.
Currently, 3D models of specific pathologies are printed at the request of the Surgery, Urology and Traumatology Services of the Hospital Clínico San Cecilio. In a few months, it is intended to implement a system that covers all patients who are going to undergo partial nephrectomies or patients with pancreatic cancer.
Coming soon, the development of multimodal medical image fusion software for direct 3D printing, high-resolution processing, and 3D medical image modeling to accurately and high-resolution print small anatomical structures will be addressed. Steps are also being taken for the implementation of artificial intelligence algorithms in the design and implementation of advanced automation and control strategies in bioprocessing for personalized and precision 3D (bio)printing.
What is BioFab i3D Lab and what is it for?
The main objective of the BioFabi3D laboratory is to be a reference laboratory in 3D (bio)manufacturing, due to its potential application in precision and personalized medicine applied to highly prevalent pathologies, improving the therapeutic response to them.
To do this, it has state-of-the-art equipment and provides infrastructure and advice to researchers both from the university itself and from outside it, providing advanced (bio)manufacturing technologies for application in regenerative medicine and cancer. The technology and infrastructure available to it is considered as 'Essential Enabling Technology' (KET), as it combines photonics, advanced manufacturing, advanced (bio)materials, nanotechnology, biotechnology and micro/nanoelectronics.
In addition, the staff that makes up the laboratory is highly specialized and has a multidisciplinary profile with experience in regenerative engineering, translational research and clinical research. All these aspects make BioFabi3D become a benchmark in this innovative area at a regional, national and international level.
It is, therefore, a unique laboratory in Andalusia as it combines the 3D printing of personalized biomodels using new digital developments, with the fusion of multimodal images and the biofabrication of biomimetic living 3D structures for their application in regenerative medicine and cancer. At a national level, there are three laboratories (those of the Gregorio Marañón Hospital in Madrid, the San Juan de Dios Hospital in Barcelona and the Clinical Hospital in Valencia) that coincide in the combination of some of these aspects but do not offer the same comprehensive approach proposed by BioFab i3D Lab.
