MANCHESTER, NH – This year’s BioFab Meeting in the Millyard, scheduled for May 21-23, will further merge the city’s history as a manufacturing leader with the ambitious goal of becoming a leader in the emerging biofabrication industry.
Meeting in the Millyard 2024 will be held at 150 Dow St., the former mill building Dean Kamen, founder of Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute, bought last year to house ARM’s manufacturing center. BioFab USA is a program of ARMI, a partnership of businesses, nonprofits and academic institutions focused on the science of regenerative medicine, as well as the manufacturing processes, training and workforce involved to make it happen.
The location of the three-day MITM24 at the former mill building “symbolizes the evolution of biomanufacturing and provides an inspiring backdrop for our discussions and collaborations,” according to the event’s webpage.
“The revitalization of the Millyard underscores our dedication to fostering innovation, education, and the growth of the bioeconomy, offering a tangible glimpse into where the industry is headed,” organizers said.
ARMI and NextGen Manchester Resiliency Council, backed by a 2022 $44 million Build Back Better grant, are working to create a Manchester a regional biofabrication cluster that will include business acceleration, community partnerships and a logistics network. The aim is to establish a global epicenter for the production, workforce, and distribution of regenerative tissues and organs that is expected to create 7,000 direct jobs and 40,000 indirect jobs in the area.
Kamen, at last year’s event, said that the transformative impact of biofabrication needs to understood by the community – that it will hugely reduce the cost of health care as well as save lives.
“People who live here ought to recognize what’s going to happen,” Kamen said. “It’s going to change health care.”
Much of health care now revolves around chronic care, things like kidney dialysis, he said. The creation of regenerative tissue means that diseases like chronic kidney failure will be approached differently, and expensive and debilitating treatments like dialysis will be a thing of the past.
Last year’s event culminated in a public reception in Arms Park at which Kamen and other speakers compared the development of the city and its mile-long millyard into a major industrial force two centuries ago to the new biofab focus.
The mills, which once stretched a mile along the Merrimack River, put Manchester on the map. Jodie Nazaka, the city’s economic development director, said at last year’s event, “There’s no reason we can’t be on the map again” as the center of biofabrication and related technology.
This year’s three-day MITM24 is open to both BioFab USA’s 170 members and nonmembers. The first day, Tuesday, May 21, is member day. Attendees can register for three days (members), two days or one day.
MITM24 will include expert-led panels; networking; more than 40 presentations by industry pioneers covering cutting-edge research, innovative technologies, and market trends; and interactive workshops. For more information, visit the event website.