The Biomaterials Lab organized the 6th annual biofabrication workshop on March 26th at Rice University. This one-day workshop focused on recent advances in biomaterials and biofabrication. Over thirty participants had registered for the event. This year, guest lectures were presented by researchers from the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University.
The opening talk was presented by Dr. Uday Jammalamadaka, Lab Manager of the Biomaterials Lab. This introduction presentation covered the basics of additive manufacturing, various techniques of 3D printing, and strategies for fabricating scaffolds for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.
Dr. Taylor Ware, Associate Professor at Texas A&M University, shared his research on stimuli-responsive biomaterials. He presented a talk about a potential treatment for urinary incontinence using liquid crystal elastomers that can be thermally actuated using near-infrared light.
Dr. Maryam Tilton, Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, presented her research on developing functional musculoskeletal structures for treating age-related tissue disorders. Dr. Tilton lectured on the development of injectable scaffolds for minimally invasive tissue engineering using Gelatin Methacrylate-Poly(ethylene glycol)-Diacrylate bioinks.
The workshop concluded with demonstrations of processing CT data for anatomical modeling, optimizing models for 3D printing, slicing strategies for fabrication of scaffolds, and a lab tour.