Printing Impossible – Wings Summer 2025
Imagine the day when getting a human heart for a life-saving organ transplant is as simple as hitting “print.” Science fiction? Not according to Rory Korathu-Larson, chief science officer at RPrime Labs. His brainchild, the Axial Growth Printer (AGP), is poised to revolutionize how the medical industry treats patients with traumatic injuries and those who need organ transplants.
RPrime’s AGP is a prototype 3D printer that uses a mix of liquid substances, affectionately called “goo,” to layer and build extremely detailed replicas of everything from computer parts to replacement meniscuses and human noses— complete with capillaries and life-like skin texture. Like constructing a skyscraper, the process begins with a digital blueprint. The printer then builds the structure layer by ultra-thin layer, dipping into almost any substance that can go from liquid to solid – some proprietary, some simple. Each layer builds upon itself, leaving voids where things like capillaries appear and matching the tissue density differences between skin and bone. When the printer is done, the item is an exact rendering of the computer model.
Where the magic really comes into play, said Korathu-Larson, is the ability to incorporate a patient’s DNA into the goo, allowing the part being produced to be an identical match, thus reducing the risk of rejection of the part and the need to rely on things like cadaver bones and donated organs.
“The applications for this are enormous,” he said. “We’ve been working with a surgeon on replacement meniscuses. There is a patent pending on this project. We can see military applications helping to address some of the most common soldier injuries, like losing a nose, ear or arm.
Ultimately, he said, he would like to create parts where patients’ cells take over the printed organs, effectively allowing the body to “regrow” damaged organs that work as well as, or in some cases better, than the ones nature gave them.
“We are at the point in the project where we are ready to work with partners for viability testing, innovation testing and design iterations.”
This, said Korathu-Larson, is where Heritage University comes into play.
In May, the team from RPrime brought the AGP printer to Heritage. Computer Science, Biology, and other science students will join the project team starting this fall. They will work with the printer in various applications, such as continued testing on the patent-pending meniscus. Students will report their progress and make suggestions on everything from design modifications to possible new applications. The RPrime Labs team will meet with students regularly and mentor them through their work. Ultimately, RPrime will take the students’ suggestions and what they learned through the process to fine-tune the prototype printer and prepare it for going to market.
The decision to bring the printer to Heritage was as much about the university and its students as it was about bringing technology into the Yakima Valley.
“One of the things that impressed us the most was when we talked to the faculty and staff at Heritage, they were always talking about the students. It wasn’t about how the project could benefit the faculty or what faculty could bring to the project,” said Garr Larson, RPrime executive director.
RPrime envisions a new era of prosperity and economic mobility, empowering Heritage students— in the age of innovation—to thrive in a robust local tech economy. It is partnering with Heritage University to build Central Washington’s first rural tech economy ecosystem.
“The Yakima Valley is a wonderful place to live. It’s beautiful and affordable. We want to make it so that people don’t have to leave the community to follow a dream—they can stay here and do it. We see our partnership with Heritage as a way to bring cutting-edge technology into Central Washington and help to create a thriving technology boom in the region,” said Larson.
Professor Jessica Black, Ph.D., who will oversee the students in the program, said the partnership will add significantly to the student academic experience at Heritage.
“STEM students will be directly involved in testing breakthrough bioprinting technology, gaining invaluable real-world experience,” said Black. “This collaboration exemplifies our commitment to bringing transformative, cutting-edge technology to South- Central Washington, ensuring our students can build successful careers in emerging fields right here in their home community.”
For the next few months, until classes start again in the fall, the RPrime team will continue to finetune the printer set up at the university so students can get to work starting day one.
“We are excited to see what students do with this project and the applications that they come up with that we never thought of. We don’t expect them to be proficient; we want them to be adventurous, to ask themselves, ‘What if the impossible was possible,’” said Korathu-Larson.
RPrime Foundation is a nonprofit organization that aims to impact the world by bringing affordable, cutting-edge technology to other nonprofits in Washington state. The foundation funds the labs to develop for-profit and nonprofit intellectual properties. They take on a spectrum of complex problems and solve them with unconventional intellectual property. They currently hold 22 patents and have more than 100 identified.