Israel’s CollPlant Biotechnologies Can Make Lungs From Tobacco – Oh The Irony!

It will expand its collaboration with United Therapeutics to include the 3D bio printing of Human Kidneys for Transplant.

CollPlant Biotechnologies uses 3D printing to make new human organs from different organic materials. It can even make a new lung out of tobacco. You heard right! So someone dying of lung cancer from smoking might be able to get a new lung made out of tobacco.

Now the company has announced that it will expand its collaboration with United Therapeutics to include the 3D bioprinting of Human Kidneys for Transplant. CollPlant is giving Maryland based UTC an exclusive license for the bioprinting technology with the goal of reducing global organ shortages.

Is there no end to the ingenuity of Startup Nation? Not only does it bring the world new technologies while helping strengthen Israel’s economy, but it also find ways to treat all manner of disease with anything from new medications to new medical procedures. And if that is not enough it also develops devices to let the paralyzed walk again and the blind see.

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We are #excited to share that United Therapeutics expanded its collaboration with CollPlant by exercising the option for #3DBioprinting of a second life-saving human organ, human kidneys. pic.twitter.com/Z9qFRPfkqy

— CollPlant Bio (@CollplantBio) September 21, 2020

“Organ shortages are an unmet global health need and by partnering with United Therapeutics for the past couple of years, we have made significant progress with this pivotal organ manufacturing initiative,” stated Yehiel Tal, the Chief Executive Officer of CollPlant. “United Therapeutics is pioneering the emerging organ manufacturing field, and we are honored to be part of this effort via this partnership. This option exercise demonstrates another important validation of our rhCollagen platform technology, performing as an optimal building block for regenerative medicine. We remain committed to exploring new innovative applications in the fields of medical aesthetics and 3D bioprinting of tissues and organs.”

“We are excited to expand our collaboration with CollPlant’s extraordinary technology to transform the tobacco plant – one that is so associated with devastating diseases – into a collagen-expressing plant that will be essential to the production of an unlimited number of transplantable organs,” said Martine Rothblatt, Ph.D., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of United Therapeutics. “Our collagen-expressing plants are already flourishing in Texas where we enjoy three growing seasons.”

Read more about: 3D printing, CollPlant Biotechnologies, startup nation, United Therapeutics