RASTRUM™ – the 3D Printer of Living Cells, Honored in Annual Awards by Leading Business Magazine

30 April 2020 — The winners of Fast Company’s 2020 World Changing Ideas Awards were announced today, honoring the businesses, policies, projects, and concepts that are actively engaged and deeply committed to changing the world. Amongst the winners is a revolutionary bioprinter for living cells, which has taken out the top prize in the Experimental category.

The RASTRUM™ 3D Bioprinter from Inventia Life Science gives medical researchers and biologists the ability to rapidly produce 3D tissues that closely resemble our human body. By mimicking a particular human disease, such as cancer, these 3D printed cell models allow researchers to test new drugs faster and more effectively, without relying on animal testing. Importantly, the RASTRUM™ 3D bioprinter helps speed up research efforts, saving valuable time in the quest for cures.

“The vision for RASTRUM™ is to revolutionize the way we approach the drug discovery process by accelerating the evolution of drugs from the lab bench to hospital bed” says Dr. Julio Ribeiro, CEO of Inventia Life Science.

This visually striking pink and chrome 3D bioprinter – designed in collaboration with Design + Industry – has taken out the top prize in the Fast Company’s 2020 World Changing Ideas Awards in the Experimental category. A worthy winner, RASTRUM™ is revolutionising the fight against cancer and enabling new paradigms in regenerative medicine, and has already been adopted by leading medical research institutes.

At the core of our company's vision is the aim to transform the way we combat disease by accelerating the development of new drug treatments, particularly in areas of great societal need such as cancer and viral infections” said Dr Ribeiro.

Now in its fourth year, the World Changing Ideas Awards showcase 26 winners, more than 200 finalists, and more than 500 honorable mentions—with Health and Wellness, Corporate Social Responsibility, and AI and Data among the most popular categories. A panel of eminent judges selected winners and finalists from a pool of more than 3,000 entries across transportation, education, food, politics, technology, and more. The 2020 awards feature entries from across the globe, from Vancouver to Singapore to Tel Aviv.

The team at Inventia is very pleased and feel honoured to be recognised by an acclaimed publication like Fast Company. This World Changing Ideas award aligns with our mission to help build a better world and reinforces the fact that we are going in the right direction” said Dr Ribeiro.

There seems no better time to recognize organizations that are using their ingenuity, resources, and, in some cases, their scale to tackle society’s biggest problems,” says Stephanie Mehta, editor-in-chief of Fast Company. “Our journalists, under the leadership of senior editor Morgan Clendaniel, have uncovered some of the smartest and most inspiring projects of the year.”

About the World Changing Ideas Awards

World Changing Ideas is one of Fast Company’s major annual awards programs and is focused on social good, seeking to elevate finished products and brave concepts that make the world better. A panel of judges from across sectors choose winners, finalists, and honorable mentions based on feasibility and the potential for impact. With a goal of awarding ingenuity and fostering innovation, Fast Company draws attention to ideas with great potential and helps them expand their reach to inspire more people to start working on solving the problems that affect us all.