Gabor Forgacs: We live in a time when it is really difficult to say “This is impossible!”

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The first time I saw Dr. Gabor Forgacs was at last year’s fantastic Idea City conference in Toronto and, after his passionate presentation on bio-printed suffering-free leather, I knew that I will have to find a way to get him on my podcast.

Dr. Forgacs is a theoretical physicist turned tissue-engineer turned entrepreneur. His companies are pioneering 3D bioprinting technologies that will produce tissues for medical and pharmaceutical uses, as well as for consumption, in the form of meat and leather.

During our 45 min conversation with Gabor we cover a variety of interesting topics such as his journey from theoretical physics to bio-printing and entrepreneurship; the founding and goals behind Organovo and Modern Meadow; bio-printing of human organs, meat, and leather; “cultured” vs “in-vitro” vs “Frankenstein” meat; his greatest dream…

My favorite quote that I will take away from this interview with Dr. Forgacs is:

Dream, dream, dream! […] We live in a time when it is really difficult to say: “This is impossible!”

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Who is Gabor Forgacs?

Dr. Gabor Forgacs is a theoretical physicist turned bioengineer turned innovator and entrepreneur. He is the George H. Vineyard Professor of Biological Physics at the University of Missouri-Columbia, the Executive and Scientific Director of the Shipley Center for Innovation at Clarkson University and scientific founder of Organovo, Inc. and Modern Meadow, Inc.

He was trained as a theoretical physicist at the Roland Eotvos University, Budapest, Hungary and the Landau Institute of Theoretical Physics, Moscow, USSR. He also has a degree in biology. His research interests span from topics in theoretical physics to physical mechanisms in early embryonic development.

He is the co-author of the celebrated text in the field, “Biological Physics of the Developing Embryo” (Cambridge University Press, 2005) that discusses the fundamental morphogenetic mechanisms evident in early development. These mechanisms are being applied to building living structures of prescribed shape and functionality using bioprinting, a novel tissue engineering technology he pioneered. He is the author of over 160 peer-reviewed scientific articles and 5 books.

He has been recognized by numerous awards and citations. In particular, he was named as one of the “100 most innovative people in business in 2010” by FastCompany

Company Profile: Organovo

At Organovo, we design and create functional human tissues using our proprietary three-dimensional bioprinting technology. Our goal is to build living human tissues that are proven to function like native tissues. With reproducible 3D tissues that accurately represent human biology, we are enabling ground-breaking therapies by:

• Partnering with biopharmaceutical companies and academic medical centers to design, build, and validate more predictive in vitro tissues for disease modeling and toxicology.
• Giving researchers something they have never had before: the opportunity to test drugs on functional human tissues before ever administering the drug to a living person; bridging the gulf between preclinical testing and clinical trials.
• Creating functional, three dimensional tissues that can be implanted or delivered into the human body to repair or replace damaged or diseased tissues.