Organovo wins innovation award for 3D bioprinter

American start-up Organovo and its Australian partner Invetech have won a state-sponsored innovation award after developing the world's first commercial 3D bioprinter.

Organovo and electronics and engineering firm Inventech received one of 12 plaudits handed out at the 2011 Australian Engineering Excellence Awards in Canberra last week.

The companies received the Engineering Innovation Award for their work developing the NovoGen MMX bioprinter, a hardware and software platform for shaping human cells into 3D tissue.

Organovo claims the output tissue is superior even to animal models for research into drug discovery.

Another goal of the emerging 3D bioprinting field is to one day be able to construct full organs from a recipients' own biotissue.

Announcing the award, Senator Kim Carr said the product represents a major medical breakthrough. “For decades the goal of tissue engineers has been to advance beyond simple cell cultures to creating three-dimensional organs,” he said.

“This partnership took just nine months to solve these engineering challenges and design, develop, manufacture and ship the world’s first commercial 3D bioprinter.”

The Engineering Innovation Award is sponsored by the Australian government's AusIndustry. The criteria for winning is a project's potential contribution to the Australian economy.

The Engineering Excellence Awards is Engineers Australia's gala event. Other winners at this year's ceremony include CAT Projects, CEA Technologies and Finisar Australia.