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What you’ll hear in this episode:

• How research specialist Hesam Farhangfar got into biomedical and mechanical engineering, 3D printing organs, and sending cells into space
• The importance of multidisciplinary approaches to problems 
• How we can work together to create a different future for the generations to follow us

“Modern problems require modern solutions,” and if there’s one thing that biomedical and mechanical engineer and research specialist Hesam Farhangfar would like to add to that, it’s that complex problems require complex solutions.

Drawn to the intersection of biology and mechanical engineering because of its multidisciplinary approach to big missions such as sustaining life on Mars and creating human organs in a lab, Farhangfar was always interested in science. Growing up in Iran, he received his Bachelor’s degree in the field and then moved to Germany to pursue his MA and PhD. His studies brought him to Harvard and MIT in the US, where he was exposed to interdisciplinary studies, including bio-mechanical engineering. He explains how valuable it is to have specialists from many different fields providing input to solve a problem.

His post-graduate studies abroad also exposed Farhangfar to 3D printing, which is now a huge component of his work. He is working on bio-printing human organs and tissues. Using 3D printer technology but feeding it with cells instead of plastic, these living cells can be combined and arranged together so that over time, they connect and link with each other, creating tissue that can be used to make skin or other organs. The “bio” aspect of this project includes knowing how to extract cells and combine them together so that they will fuse and grow, and the “mechanical” aspect of this project includes developing procedures for the machine so that it is able to accurately and efficiently switch between types of cells and optimize the accuracy of the 3D printer and that switching mechanism.

3D printed organs would eliminate the need for human organ donors, and would also remove the ethical dilemmas of testing treatments on animals. It also opens up new opportunities for drug development, because it means that we would be able to use cells from a human’s body to replicate their organs and see how their specific biology will respond to a treatment before giving it to them and risking major side effects.

His second project is similar in scope and aspirations. Farhangfar is sending human cells – some healthy, some unhealthy – up into space inside of a device called a bioreactor. The intention of this project is to understand what effect space will have on people with various health conditions, and study the effects of microgravity on humans and illnesses. In addition to working with multiple specialists across many disciplines, Farhangfar enjoys bio-mechanical engineering because he is able to work with living things rather than just machines. He also feels a duty to help solve these major, universal problems to create a better future for the generations to come.

Did we mention that Farhangfar conducts his research and work in non-native languages? He speaks 6 languages total, and is always willing to learn a new tongue if it means it will facilitate the important work he is doing. He encourages our listeners to find where their passion intersects with their skills and follow the path that results. He also reminds us that we need to be more mindful about how we are treating the planet, understanding that we are not the masters of the planet but rather one part of it.

A truly inspiring journey with noble motivation, listen to the full episode to hear Hesam Farhangfar’s interview. If you enjoy the podcast and learned something new, be sure to like, subscribe, and share with a friend!

rinaLAB is a founding_media podcast created in partnership with OST Austria.

Host: Dan Dillard

Guest: Hesam Farhangfar

Transcript:

welcome back to the real that podcast the show that explores the science and the people behind the research and innovation network Austria also known as Rina this week we get to explore biology in technology and how they intersect in three D. printing with a some product for some is currently a research associate at Vienna university of technology and also did research within my tea he has traveled across the globe learning new languages and researching with some of the best and brightest in their fields let’s jump into our conversation and learn more about were biomedical technology and engineering are meeting to solve the problems so talk about your specialty what is the what is your your field of study and I am writing a piece she teases in field of mechanical engineering in about a non deterministic and chaotic systems in dynamic because stability and from the us your I. A. cooperated feats MIT and Harvard Medical School and then some projects in half by mechanics he worked on two projects one of them was by a printing of human organs and human tissues and I had the experience of working V. eight three D. printer by the time that they was continue my education in Germany and and actually it’s the same procedure that fee just three use instead of plastic and resin and living human cells to print human tissues so instead of plastic it’s humans so yeah through from the north instead of plastics tooth and leaving sales comes out and and they are and we are putting them together yeah so after a few hours or a few days it depends on the tissue during to connect to the to each other if you take a look under the microscope you will see that there and sales are leaving to and they are connected to each other and so that you can use these tissues for example scheme or maybe in the future hopefully lights and some complex organs like kidney or so on and that we can use for talk to stink or and eating plantings and so that’s a vehicle not a heavy weight have to wait for donors or and there it’s called problems with animal testing and so on will be solved hopefully in the future and it was one of the project

the second project that I was involved is about and and constructing and optimizing your bioreactor and by the actors actually is small box sets you may put to sales inside the F. different chambers with different conditions different pressures and the foods hell C. N. for example on his the cancer cells human cells inside it and you have a closed loop that’s V. MH some conditions lights inside the human body the same temperature oxygen flow and so on so that this and sales can and grow and and if you can and the first sentence by reacted to the space to and study the effects of micro gravity on human says or if you have some diseases and illnesses a hall for example said the region will work or at all to fix that and microgravity can have on the human cells while it’s pretty incredible yes I’m curious what we got you down this path like when when did you first start knowing that you wanted to start serving in this type of science and actually I always wanted to study in mechanical engineering because it was always an interesting for me and and by the time to tell you find out that a day are searching to disciplinary teams that you can work with some people from totally other major it was very interesting to work with them because it was a wonderful experience also in the states because normally you work in my country or in Europe you normally work with the people that were coming from your and knowledge of lights circle or the same major and my first experience with and working in into disrepair teen was in MIT and Harvard to to be worked feeds and medical doctors from Harvard and engineers from in my tea and it’s so interesting because you are all these as an engineer looking for solutions and if you are working with someone that don’t knows the boundaries and restrictions of yours and major they can be very simple wonderful solutions that they can teens can be the answer and that’s why I told me be changing from mechanical engineering to buy a mechanics will will be a very interesting and I continue this way and may be after also finishing my PhD I will also the stain struck so it was it was a change was a shift for you and it was really sounds like to me of that before the inter disciplinary idea came of the knowledge was in silos we column silos and if you use that term or not but it’s just it’s own thing and being injured you can learn so much whenever you’re interconnected so that’s what happened with MIT and Harvard and then is that the point the cause you to make a shift so you first were just too in mechanical engineering but then once you once you did the inter disciplinary studies with with an opportunity is that when you suddenly wondered into bio up by what kind of country

yeah actually I worked in also and in different parts of mechanical engineering but the most important and most interesting one for me was the last experiencing now Harvard and MIT that I’ve worked with this people together and a D. V. are finding the solution for for over an actual problems was very interesting for me and that that’s why I told may be also in the future can be and we there will be more potential to work in this field and research in this field so in in mine imagination I’m wondering if there’s these disciplines together your responsibility your part of the group is it designing the box and designing the tools or is it the science yes actually is some projects is starting from zero so you have to construct everything some projects are about optimizing for example about this bioreactor I had a responsibility to design a loop so if I go just a few in the DJs it was like that that as I told you we had these different chambers that to be put to human cells inside them and these chambers are connected to each other so that the oxygen can can flow inside the chamber so that the and sales can leave and divide and so on and a it was a part of a integration and project that I put to a spectrum cameras and on and by the time that oxygen flus inside the chambers and by the time that he’s leaving the chambers and with the spectrum cameras I can man I was able to make pictures and the and the the help of a software I can see how much oxygen is already consumed by the sales right and dad how much oxygen shoot it’d be easier to its or injected to the loop so that to me will have to say I like getting into beater we have the same conditions like human bodies so that the sales and can and grow and N. V. can study the effects on them very fascinating reversing when the three D. printing going back to the three D. printing part was your role in that the taking a three D. printer that was use other things for and modifying it or just it is with any modifications necessary to to print the human of cells and I can tell you how the process is actually about a bio printing and and my role what what Aidid in this a process and for some movie need to sales and a V. extracted cells stem cells from there’s different men and methods that you can expect to stem cells from human body like from blog door for skiing or there are a different and possibilities that you can expect him and Dan by Jane in the teens D. N. can modify this stem cells to produce to be specific cell death be need

for example in fifteen or kidney we have different type of sales so by gene editing we are it’s possible to make this specific cells that we need for a printing the human tissues and then we have the sales that’s the part that’s my works it is beginning a V. have that three D. printer and this news leaving sales are coming together from this nozzle and and to this not the close to end to a and so called hydrogel is going and to a platform that V. therefore leave you can pre into the sales put to cells beside each other and after the needed time to queue so called Q. and to be connected to each with each other and then a part of the challenge was to switch between the sales because even in simple issues we have different types of sales so it’s not just one type of the sale that he put in a beside each other there are different types and and it depends on the map of the issue that you are printing V. have to switch between then cell type a to B. to C. or again to A. N. and it was a mechanical site that’s V. wanted to optimize so the accuracy of the three D. printer yeah and switching mechanism heavy work done well and some parts of the like and because of the confidentiality and that’s right one hundred percent in detail sure yeah it’s actually and the main process that is done yeah and the second project was also somehow related to be in by mechanics was air space project but it sometimes you have improved one method but you can implemented in different fields so then a ball to a buyer react to he did also some of the same and noon and methods the two major party actor so that he can have the sales sales a life in space so when you were a kid were you always feel like I’m one of the account engineer or was your dream when you were can and I always was wondering about how to and self are working and and that’s because the first idea to and work with it difference in to see the different machines and thinking what’s behind it’s how they are connected to each other off they are interacting to different parts interacting with each other and that is the first idea to that came to my mind that I want to be a mechanical engineer I’m really curious about so that was I mean I guess it will take you back to you ten years old is that when you were kind of just have a curiosity and then what was the next phase for you like college or do you know what with the weather that look like and yeah and I I have union background

I was born in Iran and I did also my bachelors studies in Iran if you come back after a few flashback to ten years and by the time and in our it is the latest we have some I also a mechanical engineers I always talk to them and I was always curious about and what are they doing in their companies and so on and it was always interesting for me and an influence yeah family exactly and and afterwards after my college I wanted to be a mechanical engineer and it was not the end by the time that I did my bachelors studies I wanted to continue my education and as a mechanical engineer if you want to continue your education and you are looking for the other yeah opportunities normally and for example I tell to both Germany and I decided to learn because the tune Germany’s very famous for four and Industria and we can kind junior field survey to fields or United States normally and you look to the possibilities ID starts to learn the language and I moved to Germany I did my masters studies in and in Berlin and by that time I worked with the three D. printers we have a learn a language first before you went to school there and yes I before I decided to come to Germany I decided to learn the language because I mean and it was not like you man mass stream Germany but it’s a very difficult language so I. N. a visit to the language school and that’s I could learn somehow German before entering the company into in the country and I continued my German the German language the processing in Germany and afterwards I was acceptance for masters studies in Germany and afterwards after finishing my my sisters I worked also if you years in the border of Switzerland and Austria for him and make I engineering company and then I decided to come back to to the university two a gain continue my education in and as a PhD student and now I am some all about to finish my studies so many languages do you speak and six languages while yeah incredible your native tongues went and green light and my A. N. native language is my native tongue is Azerbaijan you were always there to be I’m coming from in Norse in parts of your own and which is close to the border of country Azerbaijan but you’re also speaking the same language is language and the official language of Iran is Persian soul then you have to know pairs and if you are going to school and I learned also pairs and as a child and as a second language and in the school you learn to Arabic and English as a second and third and languages and a I can also speak fluently Turkish because Ozzy and Turkish are related languages and that many friends

by the time that I was studying in Germany and I am fluency I can speak Turkish and German I learned before I leave the country to an account before coming to Germany and and if you can count also English to that that time I I always and trying to improve my English but if you can count English also to that to be like six languages well that’s it what fascinates me is that indeed you did your initial studies and besides having sex which is over at that point five I guess because is I’m gonna go do my masters in another country and learn their language first and then study something complex like mechanical engineering in another country another language so that’s got to be difficult I mean it’s engineering language is not easy says yes it’s going to be I mean that’s pretty impressive congratulations else that’s energy on something like that actually it German is a very powerful language and it’s there for me like the language of the industry because and Germans are very good in industrial products and I decided to learn this language but it was very difficult but it force it actually because and I’m using it now every day and then yeah how long was it to you became comfortable speaking German is it like how what time produced you finish school minimum almost all go to Germany if along the tank and it took like a can say maybe six months to one year to be fluent in German and at first when you are visiting the active lectures in the universe seats and some professors are coming from different parts of the country and German languages like English that you can understand a lot of people all over their country as they are like N. V. after academic German because it’s a whole storage and detail that’s what I learned it’s and coming from and Vaughan region of the country and in in it’s called Niedersachsen and it’s the state and but there is major differences between German in north or south of Germany or even in Switzerland or in Austria

so I also have experience working in an avid Swiss people also with soon people and I was also in the south and by that time that I was visiting the lectures in the universe you have different professors which are coming from different parts of the country and is sometimes they are trying to speak like academic German but after five minutes the through each to their own accent so I taught that it’s you see nothing off to New Jersey speaking to and higher academic whole storage and I try to also have some studies in in a major accident scene in German language so that I can interact with the people it’s not just about the studying if you want to stay longer or and the DVDs people to enter the culture cries of the country so you have to speak this language yeah sure that’s wise it’s amazing really amazing I wonder since your family as the mechanical engineer background of they love what you do now Swisher from mechanical injury into bio chemical Jr and are they just as impressed with you as you are with them yes over there always impressed Everytime that they called in lines as I say I am now in this country working on this project and so on my mother said then laughed and told me you are like Marco Polo you’re traveling a lot to all over the world yeah yeah they are also the and did like it’s but I also like to be with my N. family sometimes and traveling a lot is making it difficult financially to be it did your parents or mesa Fisher yeah the what is your favorite thing that you’ve learned in your journey and especially as I told you in about the last experience in in Boston working within the disciplinary teams was wonderful and and and and man all in all engineering like thinking about the problems and a thinking how you can understanding the problems that can lead you to to the solution it’s L. lie to a very beautiful journey for me I’m always thinking about solving the problems or optimizing the systems that we have and yeah so you’re calling inside you is the solving that issue solving a problem yes exactly that’s the initial idea of you being an engineer actually solving the problem and now you just have to do and really really cool way so who else gets to say I have a three D. printing them and do stuff is going to go into space yes it’s really incredible yeah exactly actually bought the second project there are also some other motivations that it brings you in this way for example about to enter space projects and in and mmhm N. bioreactor and there are so many research is now a days inn in the Star Trek shin because and we are really thinking through and NASA is planning to send humans to Mars so we are really thinking N. as in to space as a backup plan it for them for errors

yeah I mean it’s sounds somehow like science fiction but it’s actually and what makes me sad needs I read this year in two thousand eighteen and he broke some records and a ball it’s an H. pollution’s and water pollution carbon related’s projected to be produced and deforestation I don’t know all the lights and global of our means and so on and and and that’s also the other motivation that brings you in this field I mean I don’t like that some day my grandchildren has to leave like in fifty years I have to and the some where else not in the blue planet it’s as I told leads like science fiction but it can really happen but the chain because the changes in our environment is like X. potential and and we are treating the and plan if not as it deserves and sometimes we are thinking that we are in the center but taking a harder look like out of the box we are a tiny part of a very sensible and cycle and and it was all the motivation that site because you can choose between different projects that you are interested and you can incorporate tweets researchers so part of your passion was okay I did the three D. printing and I was really really cool but I’m looking toward the future for my grandchildren and I want to have an impact on the science that goes into space because that may be a real possibility even though we’re talking about it as of science fiction now but it may be a real possibility is in fifth for my grandchildren so I want to have that I want to be able to touch that may help so it’s really nice because that you’ve got driving the driving factor exactly because maybe in L. lights coming decades it will be the only solution I mean we are taking it not that serious nowadays but in a can happen that some some D. V. have some conditions because of the situation that meet have you made on step to you have to leave this planet sure that you have to believe somewhere else because it’s not and don’t have the conditions that he can can continue living right well hopefully we fix the conditions here but the it’s always good to have a back up as you know as being an engineer is always a multiple ways to solve problem exactly for sure it’s very very fast and I am still in St on the the three D. printing how cool is it to watch cells bind because you you cover mechanical engineering you’re designing you know how this works but then as you said the cells you know are different type even in the same type of like skin or whatnot it’s different kinds of cells within two to watch them cannot bind and do their thing cools it for you

yes exactly act actually as in mechanical engineering building something that is alive is a different experience because normally you are working with solid parts and so on but in biomechanics you are also a pilot biology is a part of two for account it was very interesting to do something like that in in three D. printing and and other aspects and that’s also by printing cat and actually I’m coming back to the other motivations and in in in as you know for example insights in United States just one out of five drugs can and pass the clinical trial to come to the market to be approved that you can use it I don’t know that yes only one five one in five and a they think he’s developing its rock a costs approximately between two hundred to three hundred millions of dollars for each drug even if they fail and in a so it’s very expensive and the that’s why if you are developing a three D. printer what how it works actually and the other problem is that even the N. trucks that are approved that that came on the market the fee sometimes we use the stocks on the same in this on two different persons and they have different reactions for example the approved drug noon for cancer can be good for someone to same cancer and then can be dangerous for another one sold the best way to solve this problem is to test the crocs on your body and dip on the body of patients right but it’s dangerous so the other solution will be that he takes this trucks are both sides of your body but on your sales or my your organs well yes and and so we use this method and to have did same conditions as like to human body that’s the extract to sales and V. print the same organ maybe in the future we are and not that’s shortened and death for that he have to organs but you have to stand and simple tissues and he can see hall of the stem cells or do more defies by June editing sales Kennedy act to the to the trucks here on the island yes and Dan can you have N. day modify its talks for each person that can work hundred percent perfect while and in by and I just was ation of medicine used to exact visual exactly because as I told you even the approved drugs can have totally different effects on on different person Sandel is doing the math there you said one five drugs get approved and if he struck even on a one to don’t get approved close to three hundred million you’re talking over a billion dollars to get one in the market because you go for failed ones and once in the market that’s really expensive yes and then being able to test those on tissue makes it much more efficient a second faster and then I love the customisation because it’s like okay now using my cells see how it’s gonna react if we put in my body exactly that is just opens up all sorts of new things for medicine yes it’s really incredible and also and implanting the new organs and inside the body V. two V. to sales that are extracted from the and we’ll verdict like hundred percent because most of the time in fact most of the time sometimes we have to problem that an implanted organs and are not suitable for this person and you have some other problems is the objective yeah rejecting and their organs but be dismantled if someday be we’ll be able that’s I’m sure that you will be able to print and organs feet stem cells modifieds themselves youthful and like a bee in a hundred percent compatible with to meet state body

I’m gonna make sure to keep your number my back pocket fiver needed but you have the latest technology what what’s going on here it would be awesome yeah so our audience is composed of all kinds of people and some are students that are like trying to figure out the way what would your advice be to a student is like trying to think you know I don’t know what I want to do based on what you’ve had you’ve experienced like what would what advice would you give to students and actually there’s old saying that you have to go for your passion so I would I have to get to the game and it’s all also important to know your abilities I mean and you have the the some natural talents that you can see N. V. N. and you can try in this field but you if you have the talent also in in talent in this field in a you can and push your boundaries forward and it’s will be Creech that you have to M. primary results of your research so you will be you will now that it will be good for you and in yeah as I told I think it’s important to now that’s what you are doing you are doing it with your passion and you are not an investing just time to do some research and that you are not interested in it so you will make no progress or and very small progress in in this field and and sometimes your passions changes okay yes because or your field of study changes in this okay so you start off with one type of study then you switch it down the road as you as you’re yes exactly because and if you and all the principles and if you know the methods you can also use this method if you know them good you can use it in different fields that’s what I did also and because I switch also between different fields of mechanical engineering and I loved each part that they did to actually up to now and maybe I will virgin another fielding Nader space maybe in the future so it’s not that you have to be restricted just in one field that you are working in this field and you happen to never be able to change right if you have an open mind yes and it kind of work with the cost to because everything that I’ve heard you say it’s like there’s a there’s an underlying mission you know aerospace the grandchildren fixing a solution for the future in in the three D. printing it’s also personalization message meant medicine and making it less expensive and more custom custom to the individual so there’s always a passion behind it yes exactly thank you very much for being with us I really have enjoyed this conversation this casual conversation with the scientists and the bile engineer it’s been a very very fast thank you so much for having such an impressive guy thank you some for your dedication to learning your constant challenge yourself and your research it is impressive the real let podcast team includes medium Dillard producer Mariah gossip and audio engineer check Wallace special thanks to robin Tim vice and the amazing team at research and innovation network Austria make sure you subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast platform and if you listen on iTunes give us a quick review to help other people find the show thank you for listening