The NSW Organ and Tissue Donation Service (OTDS) is the NSW Health agency responsible to optimise every potential donation for transplantation. It is the only combined organ and tissue donation service in Australia with two business arms, Organ, and Tissue, responsible for the recovery of organs and tissues (including eye tissue), as well as the manufacture of tissue to meet transplant demand.

The NSW Tissue Bank (the Bank), a Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) licenced manufacturer of ocular, musculoskeletal (MSK), skin and amnion, recovers tissue from deceased and living donors and manufactures and distributes allografts. With a focus on innovation and the long term, the Bank’s Growth and Sustainability Plan has led to innovative research programs to increase the sustainability of tissue banking, to develop translational links to research hubs and to the development of Australia’s first Ocular Biobank.

Innovation and growth is required in Australian tissue banking to achieve sustainability and meet clinician demand for transplants. Tissue banking is highly regulated, legislation prohibiting profit being made from human tissue, so tissue banks operate on a cost recovery model with prices gazetted by the Australian government. All Australian governments support a national objective that Australians should have safe, equitable and ethical access to life‑altering / saving tissue transplantation, through a self-sufficient Australian eye and tissue donation sector. The Bank sees research and development as key components underpinning the achievement of this goal.

Regenerative Medicine (RM) offers an exciting new possibility to meet some of the most pressing unmet medical needs. By advancing basic science in the field of tissue engineering, the replacement of donor tissue with bioengineered tissue will transform how treatment is delivered and also create a new industry. Currently, one donor cornea can only be used to treat a single patient. The OTDS as part of a research consortium, BIENCO, has developed prototypes of bioengineered corneal tissues and world-first bio-ink/3D printing based corneal treatments as well as technology to enable 30 patients to receive treatment from each donor cornea with each treatment tailored to suit individual requirements. The bioengineered cornea has advantages over donor corneas in reducing rejection and vascularisation and has the capacity to include ‘customised’ elements such as growth factors.

Due to shortages in corneal tissue, globally, only one in 70 people requiring a corneal transplant can currently access one. In progressing our technology, we can address the unmet global demand for corneal tissue, while achieving sustainability. The development of the Bank as a regenerative and tissue manufacturing facility will help millions of patients nationally and globally to restore vision, improving their quality of life and reducing the social and economic burden associated with blindness.