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TCNJ Magazine Winter 2018

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22 The College of New Jersey Magazine TIM OLSEN '12 was in his sophomore year when a TV show — and a new academic program at TCNJ — changed his life. It was 2009, and Olsen caught an episode of 60 Minutes describing how biomedical researchers hoped to use stem cells to heal injured veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan. "I knew I wanted to have a career in that field," he recalls. It didn't take long. After grad- uating from the college's then recently inaugurated biomedical engineering program, Olsen earned a PhD in bioengineering from Clemson University. A stint at a Philadelphia biotech company that uses 3-D printing technology to create living tissue led to his current position as process and product development scientist at RoosterBio, a Frederick, Mary- land-based company that aims to accelerate and enable the field of regenerative medicine. RoosterBio provides large quantities of human stem cells in simple and aordable formats for applications like tissue and organ engineering. And thanks to a new contract with the U.S. military, Olsen is now working on bringing stem cell-based therapies to the wounded warriors who first inspired him. The key to regenerative medicine lies in those remarkable stem cells, which promote self- healing and can take the form of any tissue, from skin to bone. Persuading these cells to generate complex body parts — hearts and lungs, ears and fingers — requires plenty of engineering know-how. And Olsen has it: At TCNJ he helped build a robot that could layer dierent biological materials on top of one another; at Clemson, he developed new ways to grow new blood vessels in the lab. Yet perhaps the greatest obstacle to regenerative medicine lies in producing the sheer quantity of stem cells required. Olsen is leading the company's effort to develop a 50-liter bioreactor for the U.S. Army, which will be key to kick-starting regenerative medicine. As Olsen explains, hundreds of millions of stem cells may be needed to treat even a single sick or injured person. But culturing that many stem cells using conventional methods takes weeks or even months, and costs more than $10,000. As a result, procuring enough stem cells to do large research studies is beyond the reach of many scientists. And manufacturing them in sucient numbers to treat hundreds or thousands of people today is about as likely as putting a colony on Mars by next weekend: The technology and the money just aren't there. From RoosterBio's 14,000-square-foot headquarters, Olsen is helping the firm to produce the highest level of innovation in stem cells. RoosterBio has created a proprietary culture medium that encourages stem cells to multiply at unprecedented speed and grows them by the billions in three-liter vessels called bioreactors — a process Olsen likens to brewing beer. By improving both the medium and the Building the Costco of stem cells TIM OLSEN

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