This Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) grant will enable the acquisition of a 3D printer for additive manufacturing of functional materials for biological applications. The PIs at Florida A&M University (FAMU) are exploring processes, structures and performance measures of novel engineered materials that will lead to significant achievements in material processing that have profound biological applications. This grant fills a gap in instrumentation at FAMU and enhances the current synergy across the PIs' research platform and offer unique solutions for different funded projects and thrust areas in the biological arena such as drug delivery, electrospinning, cancer therapy and scaffolds for bone tissue engineering. The project brings together researchers from chemical and biomedical engineering, pharmaceutical sciences, chemistry and industrial engineering and will play a key role in the education of undergraduate, graduate minority students and postdoctoral fellows across different disciplines. In particular, for the first time it will allow cross talk between the biological scientists and engineers thus resulting in development of novel fundamental science and devices that will play a key role in biomedical sciences. Introduction of materials education with the help of acquired printer and proposed research in the curriculum at different departments will provide a means to motivate minority students, retain them and enhance their scientific capability thus producing a pool of well-trained scientists.
This Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) grant will support acquisition of a state-of-the-art 3D printer with unique capabilities of multi-material printing and the ability to pattern these multiple materials in three dimensions. Research component involves a) development of a novel bioprinting platform to print co-cultures using cancer cells and tumor associated fibroblasts which can simulate the human stromal characteristics b) integration of electrospinning and 3D printing to develop hierarchically structured scaffolds for tissue engineering c) 3D printed models for transdermal drug delivery of molecules like Testosterone and Estradiol and scaffolds for bone tissue engineering. 3D bio-printing of cancer cells shows significant promise for creating complex tissue and organ mimics and eliminates the gap between the in vitro drug screening and animal models. The requested nScrypt Biological Architectural Tool (BAT) system is a bio-printing platform with the ability to host up to four separate materials and print on curved surfaces or print 3D structures with a motion control accuracy of ±5 microns and repeatability up to ±2 microns in XY. The Smart pump included in the printer system has the ability to print a wide variety of biomaterials including living cells. The ability to control separate pumps/devices all under one software control and one platform provides a unique multilayer, multi-material and multi-structure capability which makes this printer ideal for the proposed projects.
