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MI’s head of imaging technologies quoted on bioprinting in U.K.’s Financial Times

Fanny Sie
Fanny Sie, head of imaging technologies, is also a manager with MaRS Innovation’s Technology & Venture group.

Fanny Sie, MaRS Innovation’s head of imaging technologies, was quoted in Tanya Powley‘s article, “Printing whole organs remains a long way off,” for the U.K.’s Financial Times on June 11, 2015, regarding the technology’s potential to transform existing healthcare practices.

MI does wish to note that the article inaccurately attributes the PrintAlive device’s development to MaRS Innovation; MI is working with the University of Toronto inventing team, led by Dr. Axel Gunther, to commercialize the device.

Here’s a short excerpt:

Bioprinting could save pharmaceutical companies a lot of money, according to Fanny Sie of MaRS Innovation, a Toronto-based company. The company has developed the PrintAlive Bioprinter, which can print skin that could be used to treat people with large scale burns. The printed tissues could be used by pharmaceutical companies to test the toxicity of new drugs, and help them decide if it is worth starting costly animal and then human clinical trials.

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BioPrinter engineering team wins Canada Dyson Award

This story appears courtesy of our colleagues at U of T Engineering News.

The printer was developed by (clockwise from top right) University of Toronto students Arianna Mcallister and Lian Leng; former student Boyang Zhang and University of Toronto associate professor Axel Guenther. (Photo courtesy of the James Dyson Foundation)
The printer was developed by (clockwise from top right) University of Toronto students Arianna Mcallister and Lian Leng; former student Boyang Zhang and University of Toronto associate professor Axel Guenther. (Photo courtesy of the James Dyson Foundation)

While some of us are using the new power of 3D printers to make smartphone cases and chocolate figurines, two engineering students from the University of Toronto are using them to print functional human skin.

On September 18, Arianna McAllister and Lian Leng were named the Canadian winners of the 2014 James Dyson Award for their invention, the PrintAlive Bioprinter.

This story was covered by CBC News and BBC News. The BioPrinter team is working with MaRS Innovation to commercialize their technology; read the news archive.

This 3D skin printer won four U of T engineers a $3,500 Canada James Dyson Award and a chance to compete for a $60,000 international prize (photo courtesy of PrintAlive and U of T news).
This 3D skin printer won four U of T engineers a $3,500 Canada James Dyson Award and a chance to compete for a $60,000 international prize (photo courtesy of PrintAlive and U of T news).

The machine – created in collaboration with Professor Axel Guenther, alumnus Boyang Zhang and Dr. Marc Jeschke, head of Sunnybrook Hospital’s Ross Tilley Burn Centre – prints large, continuous layers of tissue that recreate natural skin.

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