Katie Weimer, a biomechanical engineer based in Colorado, was challenged by her mentor to think bigger — to use advances in regenerative medicine to “improve the future of mankind.”
That challenge provided a spark in Weimer. She thought of her mother who died of breast cancer at the age of 50 when Weimer was just 15 years old.
All these decades later, Weimer’s mom has never been too far from her heart. With advances in regenerative medicine and lab-created biotissue, Weimer had an idea on how to bring hope to breast cancer survivors around the world.
What if there was a way, she wondered, to 3D print bio-friendly breast tissue material that could restore dignity to survivors after a lumpectomy, the targeted removal of the cancerous tissue?
“The reality is so many women must live with a reminder of the cancer they had every single day,” Weimer, 43, said. “That is not good enough. There must be a better way.
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