Non-technical abstract: Living organisms use spatially controlled expansion and contraction of soft tissues to achieve complex three-dimensional (3D) shapes and movements and thereby functions. However, reproducing such features in man-made materials presents scientific challenges. This CAREER award aims to design and develop bioinspired 3D materials with programmed shapes and motions. Stimuli-responsive, synthetic and biological cell-encapsulating hydrogel sheets (2D materials) will be encoded with spatially controlled expansion and contraction to transform the 2D materials into programmed 3D shapes through controlled deformation. Biological organisms use such approaches for fundamental biological processes, including complex growth, movement, and adaptation to environments. The proposed research thus has potential for fabricating bioinspired 3D materials that can change their 3D shapes in response to external signals, such as temperature, electric field, and light. Such shape-changing 3D materials could find applications in various areas, including soft robotics, artificial muscles, biomedical devices, and tissue engineering. Furthermore, this project will develop museum and summer camp outreach programs based on soft robotics activities to promote the interest of K-12 students in science and engineering. The integrated research and educational activities will enhance research-oriented multidisciplinary education and develop the next generation of researchers in bioinspired soft materials and engineering.
The goal of this CAREER award is to design and develop bioinspired shape-morphing 3D materials with programmed morphologies and motions. In pursuit of this goal, this project will (1) design and prepare stimuli-responsive, programmable synthetic and cell-laden hydrogel sheets (2D hydrogels) and (2) develop a method to encode the 2D hydrogels with spatially controlled in-plane growth (expansion and contraction) using digital light projection lithography. This approach will transform the 2D hydrogels into programmed 3D structures via out-of-plane bending deformation. The resulting 3D structures will be able to reversibly transform between programmed 3D shapes in response to external stimuli, such as temperature, ion, electric field, and light. This research will establish an integrated theoretical and experimental framework to design and create bioinspired 3D materials and program their 3D morphologies and motions, including how to encode cell-laden hydrogels with spatially controlled contraction to create shape-morphing 3D tissues with programmed motions. Such capability will benefit many areas, including bioinspired soft robotics, artificial muscles, programmable matter, biomedical devices, dynamic 3D tissue models, tissue engineering, and biomimetic 3D manufacturing. This project will integrate research and educational activities to (1) promote the interest of K-12 students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields using hands-on soft robotics activities through museum and summer camp outreach programs, (2) enhance research-oriented multidisciplinary education, and (3) develop the next generation of researchers in bioinspired soft materials, bioinspired engineering, and biomimetic 3D manufacturing.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
