In this article looking at the future of 3D printing, Karen Dubbin discusses the emerging 3D bioprinting sector.
3D bioprinting company, Aether recently appointed Karen Dubbin as science director. With degrees from MIT and Stanford in Materials Science and Engineering Dubbin is interested in biomaterials for regenerative medicine.
Her work at Ali Khademhosseini’s lab in the Harvard/MIT HST program looked at developing small tissue mimics for high throughput drug testing using thermo responsive molds. During her time with Sarah Heilshorn’s lab at Stanford, Dubbin worked on their injectable hydrogels for both cell transplantation and bioprinting applications.
As science director at Aether, Dubbin is currently developing a line of bio-inks, which the company expects to be available late 2017.
The future of 3D printing by Karen Dubbin, Science Director at Aether
The market for 3D printing of thermoplastics, thermosets, and metals has grown rapidly over the past 10 years, making 3D printing more accessible to large companies, academic labs, and individuals. The development of desktop printers and decrease in the cost of hardware and consumables have led to an increase in accessibility for the technology.
The automation and digitisation of healthcare supply chains will drive the development of future pharmaceutical supply chains,