Erik Gatenholm is a Swedish-American entrepreneur. He is credited with marketing the world's first universal

bio-ink Bio-inks are materials used to produce engineered/artificial live tissue using 3D printing. These inks are mostly composed of the cells that are being used, but are often used in tandem with additional materials that envelope the cells. The combi ...

Biography

Gatenholm was raised mostly in Blacksburg, Virginia. He attended Blacksburg High School and studied Business Management at

Virginia Tech Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also ...

. He attended the Innovation and Industrial Management Master's program at the

Gothenburg School of Business, Economics and Law The Gothenburg School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg ( sv, Handelshögskolan vid Göteborgs universitet) is one of Sweden's leading business schools, located in Gothenburg. It was founded in 1923 as an independen ...

, and received his Master's of Science in June 2016. Erik is married to Gabriella Gatenholm, the couple have two kids.

Early work

At age 18, Gatenholm started his first venture as a freshman at

. BC Genesis focused on developing surgical meshes for hernia repair and cartilage implants by commercializing Virginia Tech-owned

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...

. Within three years of its founding, BC Genesis received two

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...

grants for $600,000. The company also received a $700,000 grant from the Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission, and was slated to help revive Floyd County's economy through the introduction of more job opportunities in

biotech Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used b ...

. Gatenholm has had his own research published in line with his work. His abstract titled "Innovative bacterial nanocellulose medical devices: From incubator to human body" was published in 2013. Outside of the biotechnology sector, Gatenholm has also worked in

music production A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure.Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...

. In 2014, Gatenholm wrote and produced "Finally" with vocalist Jalana. Gatenholm composed the track and played guitar for the recording, while Jalana contributed lyrics and vocals. The track was remixed several times, earning success across the electronic music scene and gaining radio airplay, chart positions and DJ support. Gatenholm was signed along with Jalana to Déepalma Records in 2015.

Current work

Gatenholm was introduced to 3D

bioprinting Three dimensional (3D) bioprinting is the utilization of 3D printing–like techniques to combine cells, growth factors, and/or biomaterials to fabricate biomedical parts, often with the aim of imitating natural tissue characteristics. Generally, 3 ...

in 2014. At that time, academics and pharmaceutical companies mixed their own bio-inks in-house, and Gatenholm recognized a gap in the market. He co-founded CELLINK in 2016 when he was 25 years old. CELLINK was listed on

Nasdaq First North Nasdaq First North Growth Market is a division of Nasdaq Nordic and an alternative stock exchange (legally a multilateral trading facility) for smaller companies in Europe. The market place Nya Marknaden in Stockholm changed name to First North i ...

within ten months of its founding, and sales totaled $1 million in its first year. Gatenholm, along with co-founder Hector Martinez, stepped down from the company in 2024 following the conclusion of external whistleblower investigation "where the company's aggressive sales culture during the years 2017-2021 was highlighted."

Awards

* West Sweden's Young Entrepreneur of the Year, 2016. * Sweden's Young Entrepreneur of the Year, 2016. * Danske Bank's Innovator of the Year, 2016. * Swedbank's Future Award, 2016. *

Anders Wall Karl Anders Wall (born Andersson; 10 March 1931) is a Swedish businessman, the former chairman of Volvo. Anders Wall was born in 1931. He was educated at the Stockholm School of Economics. References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wall, Anders 1 ...

Award for Exceptional Entrepreneurship, 2017. *

Forbes 30 Under 30 ''Forbes'' 30 Under 30 is a set of lists of people under 30 years old issued annually by ''Forbes'' magazine and some of its regional editions. The American lists recognize 600 business and industry figures, with 30 selected in twenty industries ...

, 2018. * Företagarna's Årets Företagare (Entrepreneurs of the Year), 2019. * MIT Technology Review magazine's Innovators Under 35 list of 2019. * Svenska Dagbladet's Affärsbragd (The Business Achievement) 2020

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gatenholm, Erik 1989 births 21st-century American businesspeople 21st-century_Swedish_businesspeople American technology company founders Swedish technology company founders American technology chief executives Virginia Tech alumni Living people People from Blacksburg, Virginia