Prellis Biologics

Prellis Biologics, founded in 2016 by research scientists Melanie Matheu and Noelle Mullin, is a San Francisco-based 3D tissue printing company. In June 2018 they announced that they had reached record speed and resolution in the printing of human tissue with viable capillaries.

Prellis' holographic 3D printing technology can create the microvascular and scaffolding that allows human tissue to survive. Tissue that is densely packed with cells will die in less than 30 minutes unless oxygen and nutrients can be supplied immediately, through capillaries. Capillaries are about 5 to 10 microns in diameter and Prellis' technology can print with resolutions as small as 0.5 microns.

The first transplantable human tissues Prellis Biologics is working to develop are the insulin secreting units of the pancreas, Islets of Langerhans for people with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM).

Prellis Biologics has technology to bioprint human mini lymph nodes, part of the immune system that produces antibodies. In 2017 their mini lymph nodes were injected with Zika virus and produced human antibodies for passive immunity against Zika. The same methods are being used to develop antibodies for passive immunity against the SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for COVID-19. The process takes two weeks to grow lymph nodes, a month of screening antibodies, with clinical trials possible in 10 weeks.