Sandy Bulloch, Director of Strategic Collaborations

Sandy is a qualified pharmacist who has 30 years of commercial experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. He has led multinational market access projects in the fields of drug development and regenerative medicine. He joined Biogelx’s business development team a year and a half ago to support the company’s growth strategy and establish new collaborations with future commercial potential.

 What is Biogelx for those who may not have heard of the company’s novel 3D peptide-based hydrogels scaffolds?

Biogelx was formed as a spin-out company Professor Rein Ulijn’s lab at the University of Strathclyde. Biogelx™ self-assembling synthetic peptide products have rapidly gained a global reputation in the area of 3D cell culture for both Regenerative Medicines and Drug Discovery. The materials’ unique ability to emulate specific physical properties of a wide range of different tissue types offer new opportunities for the development of tailored 3D models for biomedical and pharmaceutical applications. Building on the success of Biogelx™ core technology, the company designed and developed a novel bioink product family (Biogelx™-INKs) which opens the opportunity for the development of advanced three-dimensional tissue models. These hydrogel-based inks are biocompatible and easily printable, exhibiting excellent shear-thinning properties, which reduce the stress experienced by cells when subjected to the printing process. However, the key differentiator of these bioinks is the unique mix of their properties, which ensure versatility and consistency for bioprinting applications.

 What is new for this year as opposed to the previous one at Biogelx?

This year has been hectic for us. We launched the bioink product range early April. We signed off a few strategic collaborations with bioprinter manufacturers, such as 3D Bioprinting Solutions in Brazil, ONSBio in the US and Regemat 3D in Spain. We have also welcomed a distribution agreement with Merck Sigma-Aldrich and start working on the bioink product launch campaign in early January. In the webinar we will present a case study where working along with Regemat 3D and PITI3D, and demonstrate feasibility to develop a skin tissue construct model and we are hopeful of future funding to develop the concept further to tackle the debilitating condition caused by diabetic ulceration.

You mentioned that Biogelx will host a live webinar on January 21. What do the audience gain from attending this webinar?

 We will discuss the potential of 3D printing of biomaterials and cells and maturing them in a bioreactor to create functional skin in the lab. We will talk about the requirements of biomaterials and introduce a versatile bioink technology. Furthermore, we will present a case study on a recently developed 3D printed in vitro skin model.

We will have three great speakers: Dr José Manuel Baena, Founder and CEO, Regemat 3D; Dr Chris Allan, Development Scientist, Biogelx; and Mario Juárez Rodríguez, MSc – Research associate at the Platform for Tissue Engineering and 3D Printing, La Paz University Hospital, Madrid. They will be answering questions after the webinar, so it is worth to register and join us on Tuesday, January 21.

How can people learn more about Biogelx’s peptide-based hydrogel products?

We have an up-to-date website where we regularly publish the latest insight and perspectives from the world of 3D bioprinting along with the newest evidence for our products.  But above all, working in partnership is a priority for Biogelx so you can always contact us in person by emailing me at [email protected]. We are always here to answer questions, help solve problems and develop bespoke solutions.