UC San Diego

Fueled by research that cells respond strongly to physical queues as well as to molecular signals, we used continuous projection stereo lithography to create 3D printed biomaterial scaffolds for mammalian cells. Relying on the high resolution and flexibility of our system we demonstrate the utility of transferring complex designs into various photopolymerizable materials. This capability affords us the opportunity to mimic natural structures which are optimized results of physical processes in one medium and applying these advantages to other material environments. This fabrication method has also been implemented in creating dynamic multilayer auxetic mesh skeleton structures to convey similar counter-intuitive negative Poisson ratio manipulations of force and movement to outer material skins. We show the versatility in spatially patterning biomaterials and their properties including adhesive hydrogels, modular green-chemistry polyurethanes and DNA. Finally, we show that pattern complexity may be useful in helping understand simple underlying trends behind cell organization, tendon models, and material choices for biomaterial scaffolds.