A 3D tissue patch is seen after being made with a RX1 bioprinter at Aspect Biosystems, in Vancouver, in October, 2021.The federal and B.C. governments are providing $72.75-million to a University of British Columbia spinoff that 3-D prints live tissue implants, the latest in a string of taxpayer-funded contributions to help Vancouver’s teeming life sciences sector.
Aspect uses customized 3-D printers to create synthetic tissues composed of living cells and hydrogel polymers, which can be implanted in people with impaired pancreases or livers, replacing the functions of those organs. Mr. Mohamed acknowledged that his 100-person company faced pressure to move some or all of its operations out of Canada and said the government funding will help Aspect stay put as it builds manufacturing capacity, which has been in chronically short supply in B.C. and Canada.
Brenda Bailey, B.C.’s Jobs, Economic Development and Innovation Minister, said in an interview that “B.C. has a long history of being an incubator of technology and science for other jurisdictions. Quite frankly, we want to be an incubator of science and technology for B.C. and Canada. That’s what we’re trying to buy here – and we’re also buying high-quality jobs.”Vancouver is already Canada’s fastest-growing biotech centre, with 8,000 jobs added over the past 10 years.