Miromatrix Medical Inc. has moved into a new state-of-the-art headquarters which will expand the company's production capabilities.
The Eden Prairie-based biotech company is trying to be the first company to develop a bioengineered organ approved for patients in need of an organ transplant.
Miromatrix (NASDAQ: MIRO) engineers whole organs which are derived from pig livers and kidneys. After human cells are added back into the organ, it will eventually be transplanted into a human.
The 42,000-square-foot office, is complete with a 11,000-square-foot in-house manufacturing facility. The new space gives the company room to manufacture organs for pre-clinical and clinical trials.
Miromatrix CEO Jeff Ross said in a statement the new facility is a critical step to delivering bioengineered organs to patients.
"As we prepare to support the first-ever in-human clinical trial with bioengineered organs, our new facility will allow us to control our development timelines and production quality," he said. "The need for organ transplants is greater than ever, and Miromatrix is proud to be one of a small group of companies at the forefront of developing alternatives to human donor organ transplants."
Transplants using organs derived from pigs have recently made headlines, including a patient who died two months after receiving a transplanted heart. However, Miromatrix uses a novel approach known as decellurization and recellurization which rinses out the porcine cells before human cells are pumped back in.
Theoretically, the company's technology could be used to transplant any organ in the human body, but the company is instead focusing on kidneys and livers. Livers are a point of emphasis because there's no alternative therapies to a liver transplant.
"There's no drugs, there's no devices, there's no dialysis for liver-failure patients," Ross told Minne Inno last year. "It's either transplant, and there's only 1,000 of those annually in the U.S., or you're unfortunate not to have access to a liver."
The company is celebrating the move with a ribbon cutting and open house on April 27.
