{"id":20396,"date":"2020-04-30T00:05:39","date_gmt":"2020-04-30T00:05:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/?p=20396"},"modified":"2020-04-29T15:21:49","modified_gmt":"2020-04-29T15:21:49","slug":"covid-19-vaccine-testing-300420204","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/covid-19-vaccine-testing-300420204\/","title":{"rendered":"Bioprinted epithelium model could accelerate COVID-19 vaccine testing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">During the current COVID-19 pandemic, many 3D printing companies launched <a href=\"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/3d-printed-masks-and-ventilators-200320204\/\">initiatives<\/a> to curb the spread of the virus. Many have put their solutions at the service of medical staff and patients by creating 3D printed respirators, ventilators, and other medical equipment. Behind the scenes, researchers are trying to develop as quickly as possible a vaccine. Vaccine testing as we know it is not the most effective way to go about testing quickly. Therefore, bioprinting company CLECELL, based in Korea, is developing a new framework for vaccine testing using <a href=\"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/3d-technologies\/\">additive manufacturing technologies<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The startup was founded in 2017, and has focused on the research and development of artificial tissue. CLECELL has gone on to create a respiratory epithelium model earlier this year using its proprietary <a href=\"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/3d-bioprinters-main-manufacturers-081020194\/\">3D bioprinter<\/a>, the U-FAB, as well as other bioprinting technology. Epithelium is one of the four basic types of tissues in humans, lining the outer surfaces of organs and blood vessels throughout the body, as well as the inner surfaces of cavities in many internal organs. What is so interesting about the model created by CLECELL is that it is expected to become a testbed for the SARS-Cov-2 virus &#8211; the virus behind the COVID-19 illness &#8211; as well as for research on the mechanisms of various other viruses.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_20398\" style=\"width: 710px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-20398\" class=\"wp-image-20398 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/CLECELL_1.jpg\" alt=\"clecell\" width=\"700\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/CLECELL_1.jpg 700w, https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/CLECELL_1-300x171.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/CLECELL_1-160x91.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-20398\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image via CLECELL<\/p><\/div>\n<h3>A testbed for COVID-19 vaccine testing?<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">CLECELL explains that its respiratory epithelium model for in vitro testing was sought out by a team of researchers at Harvard University\u2019s Medical School. At the beginning of April, they received a formal letter of correspondence from Choi-Fong Cho, an assistant professor of neurosurgery at Harvard Medical School, for information on the respiratory epithelium model created with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/future-3d-bioprinting1805201741\/\">bioprinting technology<\/a>. CLECELL explains that Cho wanted to research SARS-Cov-2\u2019s effect on vascular structure (the virus\u2019s infection routes). Therefore, creating an in vitro testing platform that mimics human lung tissue via CLECELL\u2019s bioprinting solution was of great interest.<\/p><div class=\"dnati-inside-article-leaderboard\" style=\"text-align: center;\" id=\"dnati-1841948385\"><a data-no-instant=\"1\" href=\"https:\/\/eu.snapmaker.com\/products\/snapmaker-u1-3d-printer?utm_source=3dnatives&#038;utm_medium=pr&#038;utm_campaign=u1launch2025&#038;utm_content=u1preorder\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"a2t-link\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"850 x 150px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/850-x-150px-scaled.jpeg\" alt=\"\"  srcset=\"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/850-x-150px-scaled.jpeg 2560w, https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/850-x-150px-600x106.jpeg 600w, https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/850-x-150px-1200x212.jpeg 1200w, https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/850-x-150px-768x136.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/850-x-150px-1536x271.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/850-x-150px-2048x361.jpeg 2048w, https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/850-x-150px-160x28.jpeg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" width=\"850\" height=\"150\"   \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Up until now, the high number of casualties from the COVID-19 pandemic has spiraled a frenetic interest in a cure. Experts are seeking alternate methods of research that could bypass the limitations of contemporary and traditional methods for the creation of vaccines, that could take months. Therefore, CLECELL has plans to collaborate with researchers around the world to offer a testbed for the research of viruses and the development of cures, with plans to carry out research not only on virus infection, but also drug delivery, toxicity, and inflammation.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_20400\" style=\"width: 710px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-20400\" class=\"wp-image-20400 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/CLECELL_2.jpg\" alt=\"COVID-19 vaccine testing \" width=\"700\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/CLECELL_2.jpg 700w, https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/CLECELL_2-300x171.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/CLECELL_2-160x91.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-20400\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">CLECELL explains that Cho wanted to research SARS-Cov-2\u2019s effect on vascular structure<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Along with their U-FAB bioprinter, CLECELL has two other bioprinting platforms, the U-Printer for the development of artificial tissues and organs and U-Skin for reconstructing artificial human skin models. We have yet to see how viable their U-FAB solution is for accelerating the testing of vaccines. \u201cT<em>he creation of precise artificial respiratory models through 3D bioprinting technology offers a potential alternative<\/em>,\u201d commented Young-Jae Cho, a professor at the Department of Pulmonology at Seoul National University Bundang Hospital about CLECELL\u2019s platform. You can find more information <a href=\"http:\/\/clecell.co.kr\/\">HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">What do you think of CLECELL&#8217;s technology? Let us know in a comment below or in a comment on our\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/3Dnatives\/\">Facebook<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/3Dnatives_en\/\">Twitter<\/a>\u00a0page!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>During the current COVID-19 pandemic, many 3D printing companies launched initiatives to curb the spread of the virus. Many have put their solutions at the service of medical staff and patients by creating 3D printed respirators, ventilators, and other medical&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6064,"featured_media":20399,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-medical"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6064"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20396"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20402,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20396\/revisions\/20402"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}