Today's Practice: Changing the Business of Medicine TP2018Q2DigitalEditionWeb | Page 94
T E CHNOL OGY
Engineering the Future
Madeline Winter
meet the author:
chip, he was able to perfuse the microchannels with
endothelial cells to render them biologically active. After
creating the vein, he was able to infused the channel
with coagulated blood to form biomimetic thrombosis
models that reproduce the physiology of thrombosis in
vivo.
This remarkable application means that Dr. Zhang is
now able to study thrombosis in his lab on repeatable
and customizable human models. By being able to
model and study the body outside the body, researchers
are speeding up the rate of discovery and are able to
create novel therapies and drugs faster and cheaper than
ever before.
Customized organ-on-a-chip designs will play a major
role in the innovation of tissue engineering and pharma-
ceutical development. This unique high impact applica-
tion for biofabrication will not only change the field
today, but the healthcare industry tomorrow.
Madeline Winter
COO | Allevi
(formerly BioBots)
Madeline Winter is the chief operating officer for Allevi and is
responsible for sales, marketing, and daily business opera-
tions. Her background in mechanical engineering provides her
with a data-driven and detailed approach to problem-solving.
She is responsible for ensuring strategic vision translates into
profitable operations. Ms. Winter’s efforts have helped grow
Allevi from a company of a few users to a leader in biofabrica-
tion worldwide.
What is the future of
bioprinting?
With over a 120,000 people in the US alone on waiting
lists for organs and others experiencing chronic prob-
lems due to the long-term damaging effects of
post-transplant immunosuppression, we are throwing
everything we can at this problem.
As a community of scientists, we’ve already succeeded in
bringing together multidisciplinary teams of researchers,
physicians, and engineers to take on the biggest
challenges to human health such as cancer, AIDS, and
now organ regeneration. Here at Allevi, we empower
you to build with life to fundamentally change the way
science and patient care is performed.
We imagine a future of truly personalized medicine
where we can eliminate the organ waiting list, create
custom grafts and cure disease. There is no question that
bioprinting will change the course of medicine forever
and finally turn biology into an engineering discipline
that we can master. We invite you to join the revolution.
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TODAY ’ S P R A C T I C E: C H A N G I N G T H E B US I NES S OF M EDI C I NE