Skinfactory 2.0: gmp-in-a-box
CUTISS AG is a Swiss start-up company that develops customized human skin autografts (denovoSkin™) for the treatment of large skin defects like burns and malformations. DenovoSkin™ possesses the right features to minimize scarring after transplantation and is currently in clinical phase II in Europe. While manual production of denovoSkin™ is sufficient in the development phase and clinical trials, automation of the manufacturing process is essential to scale the technology for larger demand and internationalization, and to be competitive with current standard treatments. The proposed recruitment of an Innovation Associate will have significant impact on the development of an automated system for the manufacturing of denovoSkin™ (SkinFactory 2.0), enabling production lines at industrial scale and around the world. The grant will help to overcome the recruitment barriers of being a relatively unknown, small start-up enterprise that cannot compete with larger companies due to limited visibility, brand awareness, (perceived) career opportunities, salary and recruitment budget. The translation of the manual production process of denovoSkin™ to an GMP-in-a-box automation platform requires the employment of a multi-disciplinary researcher that understands both the cell biology and complex requirements of tissue engineering as well as the mechatronics and industrial design of automation. The envisaged Innovation Associate has to bring a multidisciplinary set of skills in to CUTISS and will have the opportunity to become an expert in the emerging field of bio-engineering. It is in the interest of the company to continue the employment after the initial year in order to develop the delivered prototype into an industrially producible end product. Successful market introduction of SkinFactory 2.0 will put CUTISS in the forefront of a new, emerging field of automated production of personalized, bio-engineered tissue, which is expected to change medicine radically.