Design of 3-D Bioinks, Printing Hardware, and Printable Devices.
Jose, Rodrigo.
2015
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Abstract: Patient-specific treatments are of paramount importance. Clinicians
and biomedical engineers have long desired to deliver strategies enabling on-demand
fabrication of customized tissue scaffolds and implant geometries. The first international
workshop on the subject defined bioplotting or bioprinting as the use of material transfer
processes for patterning and assembling biologically... read morerelevant materials-molecules, cells,
tissues, and biodegradable biomaterials-with a prescribed organization to accomplish one or
more biological functions. The ability to design tailored implant and scaffold geometries
using three-dimensional patient scans and computer-aided design currently exist. However,
patient-specific designs require the development of accurate high-resolution fabrication
techniques. The novelty of this work is the strategy employed to cure structurally robust
3-D bioink prints. Current additive bio-printers use curing mechanisms which are
biologically deleterious. In contrast, cell-plotters are less damaging but produce prints
which lack mechanical or cohesive strength. This approach is able to produce mechanically
robust prints without harmful or damaging curing mechanisms. We hypothesize that the unique
stabilizing properties and self-organizing mechanism of aqueous silk protein, enhanced with
non-toxic additives, can be exploited to enable nonthermoplastic fused filament fabrication
of resorbable biopolymer scaffolds and medical devices via programmed three-dimensional
deposition. This thesis details the complete design and development of self-curing bioinks
and a robotic deposition system and programming for the purpose of 2-D and 3-D rapid
prototyping. Here we demonstrate preliminary work towards print precision and modulation,
replication of CAD geometry, and high slice number 3-D prints which demonstrate macroscale
geometry and structural strength. Successful application of this bioprinter and strategy
were achieved as work in the areas of bioprinting, implant fabrication, and
cell-plotting.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--Tufts University, 2015.
Submitted to the Dept. of Biomedical Engineering.
Advisor: David Kaplan.
Committee: Fiorenzo Omenetto, Barry Trimmer, and Samuel Lin.
Keyword: Biomedical engineering.read less - ID:
- k0698k62b
- Component ID:
- tufts:21540
- To Cite:
- DCA Citation Guide EndNote
