Practice makes perfect

Houston company is using 3D printing to enhance surgeon training and prevent avoidable patient deaths

Lazarus 3D is using 3D printing to help advance surgeons' skills. Photo via laz3d.com

It is no surprise that, when a company offered life-like bladders for medical training, Houston urologists jumped at the opportunity — many had to learn the surgery by operating on bell peppers.

This sort of produce practice is the traditional method for teaching surgeons. Before a doctor ever makes an incision on a living person, they'll practice surgery on food — slicing bananas open and sewing grapes back together.

But for a pair of Baylor College of Medicine-educated doctors, that didn't seem like sufficient prep for working with living bodies; fruit surgery was not fruitful enough. In 2014, Drs. Jacques Zaneveld and Smriti Agrawal Zaneveld founded Lazarus3D to build a better training model — and layer by layer, they created models of abs and ribs and even hearts with a 3D printer.

"We adapted pre-existing 3D printing technology in a novel proprietary way that allows us to, overnight, build soft, silicone or hydrogel models of human anatomy," says Jacques, who serves as CEO. "They can be treated just like real tissue."

This isn't 3D printing's foray in medicine. In 1999, doctors in North Carolina implanted the first 3D-printed bladder in human bodies — they covered the synthetic organs in the patients' cells so that their bodies accepted them. Since, researchers have continued to find uses for the technology in the field, printing other organs and making prosthetic limbs.

But the Lazarus3D founders felt like medical training was lagging behind. Even cadavers, which medical schools also use to prepare doctors for surgery, don't represent a healthy human body or the diseased state of a hospital patient, said Smriti, who works as the research director.

The pair turned their kitchen into a printing lab and set to work, creating life-like models of human organs. They didn't have to go far after their first successes to find potential buyers — they just went to Starbucks. In a coffeeshop in the heart of the Medical Center, they talked loudly about their product until the neighborhood doctors and researchers took interest and gathered around.

Over the next few years, the Lazarus3D team pooled resources and contacts and, a summer after opening, they moved out of their kitchen and into an office. They now are a Capital Factory portfolio company and have partnerships with Texas Children's, Baylor College of Medicine, MD Anderson Cancer Center, and others, providing organs for specialized training — and the more they expand, the more they're able to prepare doctors for invasive, sometimes dangerous procedures.

"There are over 400,000 deaths annually in the U.S. due to medical error," Smriti says. "Not all of them are due to surgical mistakes, but all of these, nonetheless, were preventable."

The models can also be used for explaining to patients in a visual way what surgeries they're about to receive — the black and grey smears on an MRI scan might not actually help a patient understand much about what a surgeon is going to do to their body. In 2018, Lazarus3D won a contest with NASA on the potential for 3D printing organs in space, so that major surgeries might be performed there. And the printed organs can also be used by researchers to safely develop new surgery methods.

This year, the company grew to seven people and aims to expand even more to add to its sales and manufacturing teams. Having been funded mostly by friends and family investors, Lazarus3D plans enter its first equity round this year. They're raising $6 million.

"Every generation in medicine, people look back at what was done before and think 'Man, that was barbaric,'" Jacques said. "Fifty years from now, we're going to look back and think, 'Man, back then we used to just give someone a patient to learn how to do physical skills on? That seems crazy.'"

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Building Houston

 
 

Hines, which has its global HQ in downtown Houston, has established an ESG-focused initiative. Photo via hines.com

Houston-based real estate investor, developer, and manager Hines is stepping up its commitment to sustainability.

The company just formed a business unit, EXP by Hines, that is aimed at addressing “the disruptive changes in the built environment.”

EXP by Hines comprises two parts: Global ESG and the Global Venture Lab. Doug Holte, who was a senior partner at Hines from 1987 to 2009, has been hired as CEO of EXP.

“EXP by Hines is an engine of growth using the most innovative ideas in capital, culture, and environmental stewardship to connect every stakeholder in the built environment and create healthy, activated communities,” Holte says in a news release. “EXP is looking beyond the boundaries of real estate to solve complex problems while creating long-term value.”

Peter Epping, who joined Hines in 2001, is the company’s global head of ESG (environmental, social, and governance). A 2022 survey by professional services firm Deloitte found that ESG continues to gain ground in the corporate world. Business executives questioned for the survey believe ESG strategies will:

  • Strengthen stakeholder trust
  • Elevate brand reputation
  • Boost employee retention
  • Improve ROI
  • Reduce risk

Kathryn Scheckel, who joined Hines in 2019, leads the company’s new Global Venture Lab, which is tasked with identifying and accelerating ventures, partnerships and investments. The lab includes a startup incubator and a VC arm.

According to the news release, priorities of the Global Venture Lab include innovations in the use of physical space, development of ESG solutions, and creation of “revolutionary built-world technologies.”

The efforts being spearheaded by Holte, Epping, and Scheckel are geared in part toward Hines achieving net zero carbon by 2040 in its nearly 231 million-square-foot global portfolio without buying carbon credits.

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