- 19 hours ago
Bioprinting is advancing rapidly, offering new ways to model disease, develop drugs, and engineer human tissue. Yet as scientific capabilities accelerate, healthcare systems, regulatory frameworks, and clinical pathways often struggle to keep pace. In this one-on-one fireside chat, Tamer Mohamed, Founder and CEO of Aspect Biosystems, examines where bioprinting truly stands today, what is already being tested, what remains out of reach, and what it takes to translate complex biofabrication science into real-world impact.
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TechTranscript
00:04Hello, and welcome, and I think we're sitting in the right places, so we've already completed
00:08the first bit of our task. Welcome, everyone, to our session, Bioprinting. I'm here with
00:14Tamer Mohamed. Welcome, and thank you for coming all the way from Vancouver to be with
00:19us. Let's start with a quick introduction, just very briefly. You're CEO of Aspect Biosystems.
00:25Very briefly, what is the company? What do you do? So Aspect is based in Vancouver, Canada,
00:32and we're focused on applying our bioprinting technology, our tissue therapeutic technology
00:37to create cellular medicines that are implanted into the body to replace function that has been
00:41lost due to disease. We have over 100 people now split across our headquarters in Vancouver,
00:47as well as in Denmark and in Fremont, California. So I'm sure everyone in the audience is probably
00:55PHC-level expert, but just in case, let's start with the basics. What is bioprinting?
01:01So we really look at cells as the building blocks to bioprint or bioengineer living tissue therapeutics
01:09that are built to replace function inside of the body. So just like 3D printing starts with a
01:15computer model of a structure, and then layer by layer, you're creating the entire parts.
01:21There's a lot of similarities with normal 3D printing and bioprinting, only in bioprinting,
01:26we're using real living cells. And so we had to really develop a fit-for-purpose technology that
01:32allows us to handle the complexity of cells, the sensitivity of cells. So we take those cells as
01:38inputs into our printing technology, and layer by layer, we're able to essentially reconstruct
01:44a functional tissue that replaces a function that we're trying to replicate inside of the body.
01:50So this is not... Is this on?
01:56So this is not something you wake up one morning, you just decide, hey, this would be neat to do.
02:00So where did the idea come from? What was the genesis of this idea? How did you get started on
02:06this path? And what kind of got you thinking about this concept?
02:11So my traditional training at the University of British Columbia during my early undergrad years
02:17was in electrical and computer engineering. And so I grew up in a world of ones and zeros,
02:21building non-living systems. And of course, that was very satisfying for a period of time.
02:28But near the end of my undergrad, I started sitting into a lot of biology classes. And the dynamism of
02:35biology really blew my mind. This ability to use living cells that we understood at the time to a
02:42significant point where we could use these living cells as building blocks to create living systems.
02:46That was the aha moment for wanting to go into graduate studies research focused on developing
02:53technology capable of taking living cells as building blocks and bioengineering.
02:58more complicated biological systems or tissue therapeutics as we like to call them right
03:03now. So that was the aha moment. But of course, it's not just the technological aha moment, but
03:10also realizing that you could go the distance with a co-founding team. And so I was blessed with
03:17having a group of co-founders. There's four of us. We're still heavily involved in the company.
03:24And it really takes a complimentary group of people that love working with each other and
03:29are willing to go the distance with each other. And so that was, frankly, half of the real catalyst
03:36for wanting to start a company is having that co-founding team.
03:39And by the way, just because it feels like so much is changing so fast all the time,
03:43just I won't ask you how old you are, but how long ago was this? What point were we at
03:47in terms of the
03:48timeline when you saw this happening? Yeah. So we started the company over 10 years ago.
03:56And so I was in my early 20s at that time. And I would say it's very helpful starting a
04:06company
04:07not knowing how hard it's going to be. You've often heard founders say if they knew it was harder,
04:11they probably wouldn't start. And that was certainly was my context. I mean, it's so hard
04:20in so many ways, particularly when you're trying to create an entirely new category. And that's
04:25the position that we're in. We're creating an entirely new therapeutic modality, which means
04:29you're not just innovating at the cutting edge of science, but you're innovating at the cutting
04:33edge of regulatory, business strategies, business models, really introducing a therapeutic modality
04:39that will be bought into from large pharmaceutical companies. At Aspect, we're quite thrilled to be
04:48partners with Nova Nordisk, a global pharmaceutical company, when we're applying our technology to
04:53create a cure to medicine for diabetes. But that takes time to take a sci-fi idea like 3D printing
04:59living human tissues and really leading in with the science and proving out the value proposition
05:05to garner the attraction of a large pharmaceutical company.
05:09Well, yeah, that's part of what I'm wondering if we're going back 10 years ago, so that the tech
05:13and the science was at least advanced enough at that point that you could then
05:21imagine turning it from, as you said, a sci-fi concept, not just some episode of Star Trek or whatever,
05:27like, okay, that's kind of cool to fantasize, imagine about one day, but you could start to see a path
05:34like, okay, this could actually become a thing that exists in the world, and we could see a concrete path
05:43to making that happen, even if now, of course, you look back and you think, okay, we didn't quite see
05:49all the things we know now, maybe how insane that was, we didn't then. But so let's talk about then
05:56that journey of turning it from sci-fi to reality, what you saw along the way, you mentioned some
06:03of it with partners, but what has it taken to get from the sci-fi thing to where you are
06:10today?
06:10Yeah, I mean, it's a great question. I mean, we have a big vision at Aspect. I think everybody here
06:15would agree that 3D printing living human tissues, that sounds like sci-fi, and we're turning it into
06:21reality. So we have a big vision, and we often talk at Aspect about the story that we're creating
06:25together, but we break that story up into chapters, and we feel that it's imperative for us to unlock
06:31the chapter that we're in, in order to get to that next chapter. And chapter by chapter, you get to
06:35that
06:36longer-term vision of being able to apply this technology to create a whole host of different
06:41tissues that we could implant into the body. And so one of the key applications in the chapter that
06:46we're focusing on now is creating tissues for metabolic and endocrine diseases. One example of
06:54this is in the field of diabetes, and that's where we're creating a tissue that is capable of sensing
07:00glucose and releasing insulin. And one of the reasons why we went into that space is we felt that we
07:05understood more of the biology than not, meaning we had a great grasp over the problem, which is often
07:13half of the solution, and we were able to apply a bioengineering mindset to it. We were able to take
07:19these glucose-sensing insulin-releasing cells, engineer them into tissues, implant them into the
07:24body to replace that function that is lost in the millions of people that are living with type 1
07:29diabetes. So that's an example of an application in the current chapter that we're focusing on,
07:34but taking a very long-term view on this, we're developing this in a very modular way. There are
07:41certain characteristics that we need in any tissue, whether it's immune protection or providing the
07:46right level of vascularization for these tissues. And so we believe the technologies that we're
07:51developing in this current chapter for that particular application feeds into the next chapter,
07:56almost like building an airplane, building it in a sub-assembly-based approach where you could,
08:00I don't want to use the word recycle, but I'll use it for the lack of a better word,
08:03recycle different modules into future applications so that you're not starting from scratch. You're
08:09able to build one chapter after the next. And so we often think about this ad aspect, whatever the
08:15challenge frankly is, what is that grand challenge and how do we break it down, work backwards into,
08:21okay, well what do we need to do now to unlock the next chapter? And frankly, for any founder out
08:26there
08:27or for any startup, I think that's just so imperative. Like you can't get caught into what you need to
08:32do in 10 years.
08:33Of course, you need to have that vision, but if you don't focus on what you need now, you're never
08:38going to get to year 10,
08:40the year that we're in now. And we're on that trajectory to build. Our goal is to build a $100
08:45billion plus biotech company
08:46that's treating millions of patients around the world and we're well on that trajectory.
08:50Well, following that idea and going back to the very beginning, it seems like if you're breaking it down in
08:56stages,
08:57one of the biggest hurdles is just establishing that very early credibility. Like why would this bunch of young guys
09:04coming out of a lab or research unit actually be the credible or the right people to do this?
09:10And it's one thing if you're coding something up and you have your MVP and you can say, oh, look,
09:14people are using it
09:14and we're getting some traction. You can't just whip up a diabetes thing and stick it in some people and
09:19say, oh, look,
09:19we've got some product traction with some patients out there. It's working. You can't do that, right?
09:23So when you're trying to establish in those very early moments of credibility, get the investors or the funding
09:30or whatever you need to just establish that foundational start, how do you go about doing that in a field
09:37like this?
09:38Yeah, I mean, it's such a great question. In biotech and frankly, in deep tech, which is the area that
09:44we operate in
09:45and as aspect, the cycle times are longer compared to other industries in tech, which really means
09:55your credibility is really on the line. You really need to promise and deliver because you're not going to be
10:00able
10:00to get your vision in a single sweep. You need to build a tribe and a group of supporters
10:07through investors and partners that are aligned on the long term, but also are able to see you deliver
10:12chapter after chapter. And that's something that we've been very focused on from the beginning
10:17is making sure that we're aligning with investors and partners that believe in the mission,
10:23that are aligned on the values, but are able to see sort of what is that next step and as
10:29a team
10:30executing and delivering on that next step. And so we've been very fortunate to build a great group
10:35of investors and partners. We've raised over $500 million to date. We have partners like Nova Nordisk,
10:41as well as the backing of our entire government of Canada. We've closed about half a billion dollars
10:46worth of partnerships with the government of Canada. Build the infrastructure from a manufacturing
10:50perspective, development perspective to go the distance. And so you really need to align with
10:55those investors, those partners that want to go the distance. But as a team, you need to be able
11:01to deliver. And that's something that our team, we have a phenomenal team of really the who's who
11:06in cell therapy people that have moved from all corners of the world to come innovate at our
11:10headquarters in Vancouver and in other locations around the world. And these are people that are
11:16promising, delivering, demonstrating that we're able to deliver on not just the cumulative efforts
11:24to get to our vision, but are showing tangible progress along the way.
11:28So let's talk about then where you are today. You mentioned the diabetes example. Can you talk a
11:32little bit more about that? So what, describe a little bit more about what that involves? Is that
11:37sort of a pilot is obviously not the right word, but is it a clinical trial? Is it what, what
11:42is it
11:42exactly now? And, and what can you actually do for a patient at this point? Yeah. So it's a great
11:49question. So maybe just to share a little bit more about that, that disease. So type one diabetes is a
11:55devastating disease. Now that affects millions of people around the world. These patients have lost
12:01the ability to sense glucose and release insulin. And that's because the cells inside your body that
12:07are responsible for that function are attacked by the immune system. It's an autoimmune disease. And so
12:11these people have to rely on insulin injections for the duration of their life. And people with type
12:17one diabetes are usually diagnosed at a very young age. And so they're living their entire life taking
12:22essentially insulin injections. So it's a real devastating, difficult disease. And so our goal is
12:28to introduce those cells that are lost in, in those patients into their body. And so we take stem
12:35cells, we program these stem cells into cells that are capable of sensing glucose, releasing insulin.
12:41And we use those cells as inputs to create our tissues that are then implanted into the body to
12:46replace that function. And so that's going back to kind of our way of thinking at aspects. So that's
12:51the vision. Well, then how do you prove that out? How do you prove that out? Well, you, you conduct
12:55a series
12:56starting off of in vitro studies or studies outside of the body. Then you introduce these tissues into
13:01into the body, starting off with animal models. And now we're now at a point where next year will be
13:06a
13:06clinical stage company. And so we're translating our preclinical development into first in human
13:12studies and becoming a clinical stage company, which is a, which is a huge deal in the biotech world,
13:17being able to take your technology into the clinic, demonstrate that you have a winner,
13:21uh, but ultimately having a pipeline behind that of many other potential winners. And so that's
13:26where we're focusing on other, uh, applications in, uh, for example, adrenal insufficiency or liver
13:31disease and many other areas that we're focusing on. And so if you were able to sort of just walk
13:38me
13:38through that for a second. So if you're able to, uh, what happens to happen there to disease to be
13:43sort
13:43of, uh, uh, evaluated or get an approval from a regulatory body then for treatment, and then you
13:50have to get insurance or a national insurance, somebody signed out to deploy, and then you'd
13:54have to scale up manufacturing in some sense, or is that, am I understanding that correctly, basically?
13:59Yeah, no, these, these are all great points. Uh, and so in, in, in, we've, uh, we've been sort of
14:04building
14:05this technology with success, uh, in mind, uh, uh, recognizing that we have a lot of key indicators
14:10that, that, that show us why, why we'll, uh, hopefully be successful. And so we've been
14:14forward building our development and manufacturing capabilities. And so we partnered with the
14:19government of, uh, of Canada, uh, uh, to the tune of about half a billion dollars of, of projects to
14:25build the capabilities that we need to go the distance. Um, and, and so we have, uh, clinical
14:31manufacturing capabilities, uh, that are able to, uh, take our tissues that we developed at a preclinical
14:36stage and take that into a clinical context, uh, where we could scale it for, for, for clinical
14:42development. And so we've been forward building these capabilities because we don't want to wait.
14:45Uh, uh, I mentioned that we're focused on the chapter that we're in, but we want to move into
14:50the next chapter very quickly. We don't want to say, well, we have a intermission here and we need to
14:54build what we need for the next chapter. So we've been forward building that, uh, uh, through partnerships,
14:58uh, with, uh, with our government, but also, uh, you mentioned on the regulatory side, working, uh, with, uh, with,
15:05with health Canada, with the FDA, with regulators. Uh, this is a new technology. And so it requires,
15:11uh, early education and interaction. Uh, but ultimately what we're focusing on is, is curative
15:17medicines. We're not just trying to treat symptoms with these types of, uh, therapeutics. We're creating,
15:22uh, uh, curative medicines. And, and so we're, we're engaging early, uh, with, with agencies,
15:28frankly, around the world, uh, as we introduce these, uh, uh, as well as understanding the different
15:34healthcare systems. Not all are treated equally. The U S is different than Canada is different than
15:38Europe. Uh, and so as we get into those later stages of, uh, of, of, of our journey and into
15:44the
15:44kind of commercialization chapters, that will be kind of front, right and center.
15:48And do you get the sense, I mean, this is something that we also talked about before, but
15:52you know, this idea that when the science starts to maybe outstrip the regulatory, uh, the reality,
15:58um, when those things sort of get outlined, how you kind of manage that, it sounds like you have a
16:03plan in
16:03place, you're talking to people. Um, there's also the aspect of just a general public when they
16:09start to hear about this again, it's one thing to watch the episode of Star Trek and see someone
16:14get shot with a laser and they get patched up with the skin created in the replicator or whatever,
16:19and not by Dr. McCoy. And it's another thing to hear like, oh yeah, some guy in Vancouver is
16:24cooking up some skin in the lab to do whatever with. This might start to make people nervous. So
16:31in terms of the regulators and the public and sort of telling that story and talking about the
16:37benefits and the risks, how are you, it sounds like you have a whole plan for, for how you're
16:42managing that. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's a great point. I mean, uh, everything we do, uh, at aspect
16:47is centered around patients and, and these aren't just people that, uh, are abstract concepts for us.
16:55These are, these could be ourselves. They could be, these could be our family members. And so
16:58the, the idea of, of, of serving patients is, is kind of the, the, the, the beating, uh, uh, sort
17:05of
17:06Paul said aspect. Uh, uh, and so we often, uh, uh, really speak about sort of what is, what is,
17:12I mean, just like in tech, what's the voice of customer? Well also here, we need to consider
17:16the, the, the patient, uh, aspect. And so we work very closely with, uh, different patient
17:20advocacy groups to understand, uh, the overall patient experience. How are they going to feel
17:26about, uh, uh, a tissue that's implanted into their body? How is the, uh, the surgical procedure,
17:32uh, going to, going to impact them? How is it going to look after? Uh, and so these are key
17:37considerations, really the requirements that we need to develop something that, uh, that will not
17:43only get adopted because it's more than adoption for us. This is, this mission is personal, uh, for,
17:47for us. And so it's more about how do we serve, uh, uh, patients ultimately that could, again,
17:53like I said, be, be ourselves, be, be our family members. And so, uh, that I would say is, is
17:57our
17:58North star, uh, at, uh, aspect, uh, and, and back to your point. I mean, uh, uh, in terms of
18:03the
18:03origination story, uh, I mean, many companies could be founded out of a garage. We, I know you were in
18:08this, in the Valley for, for many, many years and now, uh, similarly here in, and, and, and beautiful
18:14France, uh, many, many, there's many stories of, uh, uh, multi-billion dollar companies being,
18:19that started out of a garage. Aspect's trajectory wasn't that, uh, we, we started out of a university.
18:25So we spun out of UBC, uh, and I, I feel world-class universities like UBC are uniquely positioned,
18:31uh, to launch these types of deep tech companies because we need access to world-class infrastructure.
18:36We need a science first mindset. We need access to, uh, people that, uh, uh, really see the,
18:43the, the, the, I don't even want to say sky's the limit. There's really no limit. Uh, and then
18:47the next challenge is how do you take that academic mindset, turn it into an entrepreneurial one,
18:51which has been our trajectory. And just to be a little personal for a second, for you,
18:57managing, scaling a company at the intersection of engineering, uh, and, and, and biotech, what has
19:03been the biggest challenge there and trying to balancing those two and navigating the last 10
19:08years. Yeah. I mean, I mean, there's so many challenges. I mean, uh, but I mean, maybe just
19:13to focus on a couple, I mean, first it's, it's all about, it's all about the people. I mean,
19:18you often hear about this, uh, when you first start the company, uh, it's, it's just, you were a few
19:23co-founders, you could all fit, uh, in a car. Uh, and it's very easy when everybody's in, in, in,
19:29in one car because there's only one, uh, steering wheel in, in most cars. And so you, you clearly
19:35are always going in, in, uh, in, in one direction, uh, even though you may have people in the back
19:40trying to convince you to go into many other directions. Uh, uh, but, uh, of course, as you
19:45scale, you have now many cars and you're out in the world trying to get to that one destination.
19:49And so that's, that's something that we think a lot about. And, uh, we also don't want to build a
19:55car
19:55that's so big that there's just one driver, uh, because that's also not constructive. You need
20:00to have many cars, uh, but be able to guide everybody to the same direction. And so divide
20:06and conquer, go, you're on this highway. It's okay. You have different cars going to different
20:10exit routes, go get some certain supplies, but everybody needs to be going that direction. So
20:14that's something we spend a lot of time on at Aspect. We're a very diverse group of people with
20:19different science backgrounds, different engineering backgrounds, entrepreneur backgrounds,
20:23but everybody rowing in that same direction on that same highway to get to that final
20:27destination of developing curative medicines that will impact people. So that's, that's a challenge
20:32that we focus on. Uh, the other challenge that, uh, that we focus on is what, what makes sense to
20:38work on now versus later. I mean, uh, creating, uh, cellular medicines, uh, or bioprinting tissues
20:45to cure disease is, uh, a modality that spans so many different disease areas. I mean, I, I'm sure
20:51in your mind now you're thinking of many different types of applications, but if we try to focus on
20:55all of those things at once, uh, we'll, we'll die in our trying. And so it's imperative for us to
21:01really take a very systematic, pragmatic approach around choosing what, what do we work on now versus
21:05later? And so we look at, okay, well, what, what areas of biology do we know more than not?
21:09What areas are high on medical need? What areas, uh, make sense from a commercial perspective?
21:16What areas, uh, add platform value, for example, like what areas could we work on now that actually
21:22unlock other areas? So we think about, about a lot of these considerations, uh, and our overall,
21:27we call it sort of our pipeline strategy. Uh, and so that's, that's a constant, uh, constant challenge.
21:33So one last question here, I know you always have to be a little careful not to kind of
21:37overhype, overpromise with these things, but, uh, you know, we started off talking a little bit,
21:42you, you hinted that the, there's a bigger vision. Uh, we, we, we talked a little bit about the sci
21:47-fi
21:47aspect. So if you can just for a minute, maybe cast forward a little bit and just give us a
21:54bit of
21:54a taste of, you know, looking further down the road, if, if bioprinting really becomes sort of
22:01a fact of life, not just you guys succeed at specifically what you're doing, but if it becomes just
22:07a fabric of, of, of, of medicine in general, what does the world look like? What, what,
22:13what changes in terms of medicine and health and, and how we think about these things?
22:19Yeah. I mean, it's, it's something that, uh, that, that I think about, uh, deeply, uh,
22:24I'm sure you think about all the time, but give us, give us a little like a hint of the
22:28future.
22:28Yeah. I mean, uh, really the, the, the, the future that, uh, that I see is, uh, I mean,
22:33it's a, uh, a factory of the future with printers, uh, producing a whole variety of different tissues
22:37and, uh, uh, and, and these tissues being delivered to hospitals, dispatched, uh, to these
22:43tissues to hospitals around the world, uh, and tissues implanted into people that are, are saving
22:48their lives so that we don't have to rely on, uh, uh, on, on donor organ lists. We don't have
22:52to rely
22:53on treating symptoms like we do, uh, in, in diseases like diabetes, where we're having to
22:58rely on insulin, uh, for, for the rest of our lives. So, uh, it, it's really, uh, I mean,
23:03fighting biology with biology and, and, uh, uh, really developing curative medicines. And we don't
23:09take that, that word lightly. I mean, not many in our industry, and it, I see it as the one
23:13of,
23:13one of the most noble industries, biotech, because it's the industry we go to when we're the,
23:17the most desperate when we're sick. Uh, but even then, uh, very few get to say that they're working on
23:22a cure. Uh, there are many people working on treatments, on drugs, uh, at Aspect, we're
23:28working on cures. And so the future that I see is we're, we're, we're in, uh, people have access
23:33to curative, curative medicines. And, and, and, and what, I mean, the geek inside me also gets
23:39excited because, uh, that's also going to be realized in a very cool kind of sci-fi way where
23:44I painted a picture of a factory of the future producing, uh, I mean, living body parts, as my
23:49daughters would say, that's what dad does for a living. He prints living body parts.
23:53And then, I mean, I would have to imagine, uh, it's possible to concretely
23:58guess at this, but I mean, the implications then just ripple out from there. I mean, if you really
24:02get to that dynamic, I mean, that changes the entire medicine economy, the health economy,
24:10and then that ripples out from there from pharmaceuticals, treatment, insurance. I mean,
24:15that's such a huge chunk of the GDP in this country, potentially lifespans, et cetera, et cetera.
24:21I mean, the, the economic implications, et cetera, et cetera. I mean, again, not,
24:27I'm not even saying that in apocalyptic or whatever way, like it just the, the, but the
24:31implications one could imagine, uh, are, are huge as it, as it transforms that piece of it, but
24:39in, in, in a huge way that then we have to regret, would have to reckon with like, okay,
24:44how do we adapt to curing diabetes and not having to manufacture insulin? And then
24:49what if no one dies from diabetes, et cetera, et cetera? Yeah. I mean, it's a, it's a great point.
24:55I think all of these questions will be forced, but I mean, I'm an eternal optimist and I, I feel
25:00that,
25:02the world will change around innovation that ought to exist. And any day, all day, I, I would bet on
25:09human productivity and human ingenuity, uh, particularly in the world that may differ with
25:14that, uh, uh, perspective. Uh, uh, but I, I would say, uh, as, as you make humans healthier,
25:20as you make humans, uh, live healthier longer, uh, that's only going to increase productivity,
25:26only going to increase sort of the success of this world. Yeah. And to be clear, I put these in
25:29the
25:29category of good problems to have, not scary, bad problems, just interesting ones to start to think
25:35through of, uh, yeah, it'll be, it would be nice to have to deal with that rather than the opposite.
25:40So, uh, everyone, if you can give, uh, Tamara a big round of applause, thank him for coming
25:44all the way out here. It was a great conversation. Thank you.
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