This startup is growing mini-livers to keep patients alive

Dimension Bio wants to grow a simplified liver from cells to sustain patients long enough for a damaged liver to recover—or until a transplant arrives.

Caralynn Nowinski Collens, Ramille Shah, and Adam Jakus spent years developing an innovative technology to regenerate injured bone. The results, they thought, were . . . okay. The company they founded, Dimension Bio, received clearance from the Food and Drug Administration for its approach: providing a 3D-printed lattice or “scaffold” for new bone to grow in. However, it didn’t form new bone fast enough to compete with established treatment methods, such as transplanting a patient’s own bone tissue.