bio-printing?
Thursday, 18 November 2021
Our next steps might be to print one or more of these forms with cells. We are interested in finding out:
- what it looks like with cells
- how it changes over time in the incubator
- what it looks like as cells grow
- how we might monitor what is going on
- how much light a bioprinted object can withstand (could this ever be exhibited?)
- how many cells would be needed from our supply for one of these forms
We’d like to video the next round of bioprinting, maybe with time-lapse, to see the form built layer by layer in the LumenX printer. Not much is visible, especially at first, except darkness and tiny purple lights exposing the gel. We’ll have to find a way to take a tripod and camera into the lab and set it up in the darkened room.
the LumenX underway
The procedure is fascinating.
From the LumenX site:
The Lumen X+ divides 3D models into stacks of horizontal layers in the form of black and white image files. Using an industrial-grade visible-light projector, each image is projected onto a droplet of liquid PhotoInk™ on a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) vat. The illuminated regions react and solidify, then the build platform moves the cured layer up and out of the way, so that more liquid PhotoInk can be cured with the next image.
So the form appears to be drawn upwards and out of a blob of liquid on the plate, the purple lights conjuring substance out of fluid.