Product has wide application in the area of biological and medical research
Unicamp researchers developed a specific technique for producing liquid collagen. Instead of reprocessing collagen from its final form, animal skin, as is commonly done, the group extracts the most fundamental element of the fiber, the monomers, to synthesize pure collagen in soluble form. The research is part of Andreas Kaasi's doctorate, in progress at Biofabris, National Institute of S&T in Biofabrication, at the Faculty of Chemical Engineering (FEQ) at Unicamp, under the guidance of professor Paulo Kharmandayan. Kaasi is the founder and researcher responsible for Eva Scientific, spin-off which has just launched solubilized collagen on the market.
According to Kaasi, Eva Scientific is the first company in Brazil to produce and commercialize this type of collagen. “There are few places in the world that can make this material synthetically”, highlights the research advisor. The product also has advantages over its predecessors in terms of purity and versatility.
Liquid collagen solution has wide application in the field of biological and medical research as a substrate for cell culture. As the researcher explains, classic cell culture uses plastic or glass substrates for the development, proliferation and migration of cells. However, some cell types, such as induced pluripotency stem cells (iPS), embryonic stem cells, epithelial and endothelial cells, are more demanding and adhere poorly to these materials. Collagen, as it is a more natural material, constitutes a more fertile and friendly ground for these cells.
Biomembranes
Collagen is the first fruit of a larger project to develop biomembranes for animal and human use using 3D printing and collagen as raw material. “The key to our project is collagen, as it is the basis of all tissues, internal and external. Our innovation is the manufacture of a versatile and resistant collagen tissue using 3D printing”, explains the researcher. After being tested in the laboratory, the biomembrane was applied on an experimental basis to animals that had lost part of their skin, at the Sorocaba Veterinary Hospital (SP). The results are promising, according to the group involved. The regeneration time for the affected area, estimated at between 3 and 6 months, was reduced to one month.
In addition to functioning as a physical barrier to environmental contamination, biomembranes, even though they are completely acellular, attract surrounding cells to populate the affected region, which accelerates the recovery process. Another differentiator of the new material is having 90% humidity inside a flexible structure. This way, it can be applied directly to the wound, without needing to be humidified. “Everything that happens in the field of regenerative veterinary medicine also serves as experience for the human area. That’s why it’s so interesting to have the two fields evolving in parallel”, observes the researcher.
Bioreactors
Another product, also formulated during the research, and which is already being sold by the company, is the bioreactor: a chamber that simulates the human body, creating the right environment for the growth of living tissue. “The uterus is the best bioreactor we know”, points out Kharmandayan. The product developed by Eva Scientific consists of a set of equipment and control and monitoring software, which defines the appropriate conditions of temperature, pressure, pH, nutrients, etc. “The processes that happen in the body can be recreated artificially using different methods and equipment. We created very flexible and versatile software, which controls all these parameters”, explains Kaasi.
For the bioengineer, collagen and bioreactors were an opportunity for financial return at an early stage of the work. Because they are products for research use, they require less regulation than products for human or animal use. In addition to products, the company offers customized consultancy in tissue and organ engineering, from which the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo and the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul have already benefited.
Next Steps
Using matrices produced using the 3D printing technique, Kaasi intends to manufacture structures of different shapes, using collagen as a raw material and the bioreactor as a production environment. “My intention is to establish this new line of bioreactor research using 3D printing,” he reports. “The skin, being flat, is the simplest shape. In the case of an aorta or a vessel, the shape will be tubular. For an organ, like the heart or bladder, that contains liquid, the shape should be similar to a bag”, explains Kaasi.
Society and market
As highlighted by André Jardini, senior researcher at Biofabris, Eva Scientific is the fourth daughter company of Unicamp incubated by Biofabris. The Institute's characteristic is to collaborate in the launch of spin-off. “We encourage doctorates and master’s degrees developed at the Laboratory to end up with a product that can be patented or a small company,” he says. According to him, when starting their research, the student is encouraged to make an assessment of the market context and create a line of reasoning within the research that could lead to the development of a product or even a technological innovation.
Eva Scientific is one of several Biofabris daughter companies that were selected for funding from Fapesp under the Innovative Research in Small Businesses (PIPE) program. Eva, in turn, is also being accelerated in InovAtiva Brasil, an acceleration program organized by the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade (MDIC), which in this edition received 1.793 proposals for the competitive 300 vacancies. Jardini highlights the importance of this type of initiative to meet society's demands. He cites as an example the skull prostheses, developed by Biofabris, which have already received more than 100 orders. “Scale production is necessary, which is not the laboratory’s role,” he explains.
Biofabris, coordinated by professor Rubens Maciel Filho (FEQ), is one of nine INCT based at Unicamp and one of 44 in the State of São Paulo. The program is under the responsibility of the Ministry of Science and Technology (MCT) and is organized by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) in partnership with the São Paulo State Research Support Foundation (Fapesp). At Unicamp, in addition to FEQ, the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering (FEM) and the Faculty of Medical Sciences (FCM) participate in Biofabris. Its partners also include the São Carlos School of Engineering (USP); the Institute of Orthopedics and Traumatology of the Hospital de Clínicas (HC) of USP; the Escola Paulista de Medicina (EPM); the Institute for Energy and Nuclear Research (Ipen); the Renato Archer Information Technology Center (CTI); the Center for Medical and Biological Sciences at PUC-SP; the Biomaterials Laboratory of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS); and the Materials Processing and Characterization Division of the National Institute of Technology (INT).
