17 May 2017
With initial proof-of-concept financing secured in 2005, Elastagen should be considered a teenager in start-up years. But biotechnology that relies on wet materials rather than software or devices has a much longer road to commercialization. The idea behind the company’s offering is even older. In 1995, a research team at the University of Sydney in Australia led by tissue engineer Anthony Weiss announced that it had produced the human form of the molecule tropoelastin in genetically modified Escherichia coli cells.
Nature 545, S21–S24 (18 May 2017) doi:10.1038/545S21a