From science fiction to life-sustaining organs

“I am totally convinced that this technology is going to be normal in a decade or two.” — Lutz Kloke

Lutz is by training a pharmacist, but by some weird coincidence he ended up doing his Ph.D. in tissue engineering. The work on his thesis made him go deeper into the topic and finding his passion for bioprinting. After finishing his thesis he was sold on the idea of printing implantable material and providing bioimplants. So he turned his hobby and interests into a company — Cellbricks.

What is Cellbricks?

Our mission is to solve the organ donor shortage by bioprinting transplants. We have developed a new bioprinting technology that allows us to create complex three-dimensional structures made of biopolymers and cells. With this, we can produce organ-models, living 3D cell cultures, and scaffolds. Additionally, we are also aiming to empower researchers to investigate functional human tissues for fundamental biological research or advanced regenerative therapies.

How did you come up with the idea of Cellbricks?

It’s basically the same startup story like with everybody else: you start with a hobby/field of interest and make it your primary work — or at least this is how I ended up with Cellbricks.

After my Ph.D. thesis, I had nothing, I just had my degree. If I would have gone to the banks and told them “look, I want to do bioprinting because I think this is the future and we are gonna print organs or transplants” I wouldn’t have gotten any funding. But the good thing is that the German government gives funding to deep tech ideas that you want to commercialize. So, in 2015 I started with Cellbricks and in 2016 I was able to found the legal entity. Since then we are working as a bioprinting company, selling printed products and working as a collaborator for academia, hospitals, and for the industry. We basically build them their individual 3-dimensional models. That’s the short story of how Cellbricks started and we grew ever since — we started off with three people in 2015 and right now we are 15.

But honestly, that’s the question I get always asked and it’s the hardest one to answer. The weird part is that I am just totally convinced that this technology is going to be normal in a few years or a decade. This science-fiction idea of going to the doctor and he/she is going to print an organ or life material and implant it into your body will be reality sooner or later. Also, we will get used to the fact that it’s better to create something new than to implant plastic or material that is derived from animals. I am entirely sold on that idea, but it’s hard to explain how I came up with it at the very beginning. I worked in the field, and to me, it was obvious that 3D printing would advance to printing biological material, and if I wouldn’t do it, somebody else would do it. I guess it kinda grows with you when you work in the field and you get passionate about it, right?

Did you ever plan to found a company? How is it to be a founder?

I actually decided to found a company because it was the only way to keep working in the field after my Ph.D. Now I’m my own boss, I can decide how we move and I love this. But on the other hand, I still need to focus on getting money, so basically, the economic situation is my boss (laughs). This means that I cannot really completely freely decide where to go because I’m also responsible to get revenue. As a founder, there are many fields to take care of — building up a company, developing the technology, finding customers, getting revenue, and so on. You have to balance the company between economic and scientific growth — we cannot act as a pure R&D company, as we are an economic entity that sells its products.

What was your best moment and biggest learning as a founder until now?

I guess there is no specific “best moment”. It just makes me really happy whenever I think of our journey and remember where we came from and what we have accomplished so far. It’s a good feeling. And my biggest learning I would say was to learn to say “No” to people or projects in order to stay focused.

Where do you see Cellbricks in 5 years from now?

In 5 years I want us to be an established player in the field of regenerative medicine via bioprinting. That is basically the goal I’m looking towards. I want us to grow into a company that is on the one hand advancing science (especially in drug development) and on the other hand, is exploring the way on how we can use the technology to speed up regenerative medicine.

What do you think in which timeframe is it realistic to have 3D printed organs?

It’s hard to estimate how long it will take. Due to regulations, it will take a while — especially life-sustaining organs like a beating heart or liver. It’s not like you are allowed to implant something into the body just because you can print it, there are a lot of regulations and this is good. You need to pass many tests before and this will take years to decades. I don’t have a clear date for when there will be the first life-sustaining organ ready to be implanted. But implantable material, which is not life-sustaining, I think this will take place sooner. So to conclude, to implant a printed beating heart will still take time, but there will be devices or material that will be implanted for sure in this decade.

Recommendations

Podcasts: Tilo Bonow’s “Business Class”, Inga Bergen “Visionäre der Gesundheit” (German)