Nordic Life Science 1
biotechnology, marketing and facilitating change,
Gatenholm co-founded and is the CEO of Cellink, the world’s first bioink company, with its U.S. headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts and European office in Gothenburg, Sweden. Using bioink technology, researchers can print three-dimensional human organs and tissue; the biomaterial enables human cells and tissue to grow as if they were in a body. Bioink and the printer technology stem from work by researchers such as Paul Gatenholm, Erik’s father, a professor of biopolymer technology and chemistry at Chalmers University in Gothenburg. Cellulose from Swedish forests and alginate from seaweed native to the Norwegian Sea are among the bioink’s ingredients. The applications for the bioprinted materials are endless, including pharmaceutical and preclinical testing; scientists can print out small sections of cancer tumors, for example, and use them for testing different drugs and print liver, cartilage and skin tissues. Cellink also sells the bioprinters used in the process. Five years ago, bioink was not available commercially, and Erik Gatenholm decided that needed to change. In the three years since Cellink was founded, business has grown rapidly and the company has customers in about 50 countries and employs approximately 100 people. Married with an apartment in Sweden, Gatenholm said he still travels frequently, spending most of his time on the east coast of the U.S. Erik’s other love is music production, but the passion for Cellink have put those activities on hold. “I truly enjoy music production and actually had plans of becoming a professional House music producer,” he said. “Back in 2013, I received my first record deal with a record label and then kept producing for a few years after that. It’s been a while since I produced music now. I miss it.” MAKING AN IMPACT 105 Gatenholm, 29, met some of his future business partners while working on his MBA at Gothenburg University. He was born in Sweden, but moved to the U.S. at a young age when his father accepted a job at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (more commonly known as Virginia Tech) in Blacksburg, Virginia. Paul Gatenholm’s area of expertise was bioengineering, and he worked with biomaterials and tissue engineering. While Erik also was interested in science, he earned a degree in business management from Virginia Tech. He learned about interesting discoveries and developments in bioengineering and science, but also saw the difficulties scientists and entrepreneurs had in bringing discoveries to market and getting patents. “You have to do that if you want to make an impact,” Gatenholm said. “I saw that was missing and wanted to focus on that aspect. What a lot of companies in the science field are lacking is a focus on the management, marketing, and sales.”