Welcome to PRELLIS PRESS, the newsletter produced by Prellis Biologics. We’re excited to keep you updated quarterly with company progress and advances in human tissue engineering.   

Prellis Closes Series A Funding and Expands Laboratory Space

Prellis Biologics closed series A funding with lead investor Khosla Ventures in the spring of 2019.

“We are delighted to have Khosla Ventures on board as true experts in deep tech and development of novel applications therein. It was a great match for our team and the revolutionary nature of our technology,” said CEO and Founder, Melanie Matheu.

True Ventures and SOSV, who allowed us to take the technology from idea to reality, demonstrated steadfast support of our path towards full organ development with pro rata plus participation in the funding round. 

With the new funds, the Prellis Biologics team has expanded operations, and will be initiating large animal trials for their first human tissue replacement product in 2020. 

Prellis in Your Laboratory 

As a small company founded by research scientists, we are proud to announce that over 30 independent academic and pharma laboratories have tested and are now using Prellis Biologics Vascular Tissue Blanks for their 3D Cell Culture needs. Our customers have demonstrated long-term 3D culture results with both primary human cells and human cell lines. 3D cell growth has been tested with a range of cell types, from human liver and cortical neurons, to patient-derived tumor samples with the intent to develop improved chemotherapy selection. 

To purchase Vascular Tissue Blanks for your lab, email Greg@PrellisBio.com.
 

An exciting development for our R&D team is that several of our research partners have shown that difficult-to-grow cell types do not require any external matrix to adapt, form organoids, or grow along the vascular-like channels. This means moving forward towards whole organ transplant. We will be able to minimize or even eliminate the use of external growth factors and undefined media elements that are necessary to support cell growth in other 3D culture methods. 

Ongoing Pre-Clinical In Vivo Work

Prellis Biologics is excited to share that we have initiated collaborative work with the transplant team at The Jackson Laboratory, one of the largest research animal providers in the world. The team at JAX Labs, in a preliminary study, was able to demonstrate a significant improvement in the ‘take rate’ of human tumors transplanted into mice for testing and development of therapeutics. 

These results are tremendous in the world of drug development, and specifically for cancer and cancer immunotherapy development. Improved human tissue engraftment allows for personalized medicine studies, as well as significant cost reductions due to faster time to results, improved retention of precious patient samples, and a reduction of the number of animals used in research studies. Prellis Biologics and The Jackson Laboratory will be repeating the study and sharing final results in early 2020. 
 

Human Kidney Nephron Development

Prellis Biologics is continuing development of bioprinted human nephrons, the unit of filtration in the human kidney. Each kidney hosts about 1.2 million nephrons that filter the blood and balance salts. Printing at the size of the capillaries and filtration system for the human nephron has never been achieved in the course of human tissue engineering and is a critical next step in our quest to print a human kidney suitable for transplantation.

Our microfluidics engineers are currently iterating on our design by testing fluid flow dynamics and pressures, while our cell biologists are starting the initial human kidney progenitor cell growth and testing. We expect testing in animals for cell differentiation and vascularization of a nephron structures to begin in early 2020. Solving the complex structure of the nephron and demonstrating functionality is our first step towards the development of the whole solid organ for transplantation.

Prellis Bio and CellInk Win Merck 2019 Innovation Award 

In September, CellInk and PrellisBio were awarded the Merck Innovation Award for the Holograph-X, the first laser-based ultrafast bioprinting system in the world. 

“In the award announcement, Merck senior investigator Tim Rhodes recognized CELLINK and California-based development partner Prellis Biologics for their 'cutting-edge technology.' The award was announced at Merck Tech Symposium 2019, a forum focused on new technologies that provide decision-making insight in medicine. The event is a meeting for more than 1,000 Merck scientists with talks and posters, as well as a supplier trade show with more than 70 exhibitors.” Read more about the award here. 

In less than one year from our announcement, Prellis Biologics, in partnership with CellInk, Inc. has shipped the Holograph-X to Merck for an onsite demonstration of the technology and applications for ultrafast, high resolution bioprinting. The Holograph-X allows for researchers to bioprint any structure they develop at a one- micron resolution. Structures that would take any other printer weeks to produce are built in under an hour with the Holograph-X. Learn more about the Holograph-X here.
 

What's New in Tissue Engineering

Human Tissue Engineering holds tremendous promise for the future of health and medicine, and we are delighted to highlight research in the field. In the last couple of months, three academic articles caught our eye as stand-outs in the field. 

Here’s what our team is reading: