GE Healthcare Life Sciences said today that it has entered into a strategic R&D and distribution partnership with Advanced Solutions Life Sciences — with a goal of personalized tissue regeneration.
The partnership with Advanced Solutions Life Sciences is the latest in a string of investments and partnerships that GE Healthcare (NYSE:GE) has been making to further a wide array of medtech innovation — from 3D printing to robot-assisted surgery to artificial intelligence to digital health.
The integration of GE’s IN Cell Analyzer with Advanced Solutions Life Sciences’ BioAssemblyBot systems will involve embedding cellular-level assessments into the 3D-bioprinting workflow used to create human tissue models, according to the companies. The deal is about designing, building and imaging living, vascularized 3D tissues in a single process, according to the companies.
“Printing multi-material 3D objects inside of microwell plates allows scientists to efficiently move away from traditional 2D monocultures on plastic, to 3D discovery and cytotoxicity models that more accurately reflect native biology and disease,” said Emmanuel Abate, GM of Genomics & Cellular Research at GE Healthcare Life Sciences.
“By combining this flexibility and precision of the BioAssemblyBot with the image quality and speed of the IN Cell Analyzer 6500 HS confocal screening platform, the prospect of automating high content screening in 3D models can become a reality,” Abata said.
Precise 3D models could provide a better environment for biopharmaceutical companies to test their drugs — with shorter development times — because the models mimic human interactions.
“The power of both of these platforms brings a new level of efficiency, speed and quality with assay designs and 3D biofabrication,” said Michael Golway, ASLS’s president and CEO.