The Department of Defense (DoD) announces an award of nearly 300 million in a new public-private Manufacturing USA Institute to Advance Regenerative Manufacturing Institute (ARMI) from leading manufacturers, universities, non-profit organizations and the federal government to develop scalable manufacturing processes for engineering tissues and organs.

The UF Southeast node is led by Dr. Greg Sawyer, a mechanical and aerospace engineering professor in UF’s Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering. Dr. Jon Dobson, professor in the J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering, is the lead investigator for the “Tissue and Organ Development & Life Support Program,” and an investigator for the “3D Biosystems for Drug Screening Program,” which also includes professors Peter McFetridge, Kyle Allen, and Blanka Sharma, from UF BME.

Overall, the University of Florida Southeast node will serve as an integrated effort bringing together researchers and industry at the intersection of soft matter engineering, medicine, life science and physical sciences.

The Advanced Tissue Biofabrication team — organized by ARMI and led by engineer, inventor and entrepreneur Dean Kamen — consists of 47 companies, 26 academic institutions and 14 government and nonprofit organizations.

Biofabrication is an innovative manufacturing industry segment at the intersection of biology-related research, computer science, materials science and engineering that is creating state-of-the-art manufacturing innovations in biomaterial and cell processing, bioprinting, automation and non-destructive testing technologies for critical DoD and novel commercial use.

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