Photo: Cyfuse
Long before becoming CEO of Japanese biotech company Cyfuse, Shizuka Akieda was crazy about soccer and good enough to represent her country in high school and university. As a postgraduate student researching bone cancer, she encountered the Kenzan bioprinting technique to regenerate organs. It stacks tissue such as blood vessels or nerve cells onto a base of close-packed 0.2 mm diameter needles, similar in appearance to a “kenzan” used to stand flowers in Japanese flower arranging. The introduction of 3D printers has made this process around 40 times more efficient and currently, blood vessels and nerve cells up to 3 cm in length can be created in a few hours. The company has sold about 30 bioprinters to clients in Japan and the US and has commenced joint research with leading medical institutions at universities across the US.
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