From forming the initial idea followed by executing our project plans, we always shaped our directions through human practice to ensure we’re on the right path. We had followed academic advice and industry guidance.
06.02 Online meet-up with Professor Ming-Chia, Li
06.05 Online meet-up with team Jiangnan_China
06.26 2022 ARS event
06.29 Online meet-up with Professor Yu Yuan, Hsiao
07.03 Online meet-up with team Munich
07.04 Online meet-up with team CUG
07.05 Online meet-up with Dr. Huai-En, Lu
07.05 3D Printing course & Workshops in professor Ming-Chia, Li's lab
07.12 Online meet-up with team HKUST
07.18 Online meet-up with team NCHU
07.26 Online meet-up with team KCL
08.02 Meet-up with GEMS_Taiwan
08.04 Second online meet-up with team KCL
08.06 Second online meet-up with team Aachen
09.23 Enterpreunuer visit - Hung Chou Fiber Industry. Co.
Online meet-up with Professor Ming-Chia, Li
Professor Ming-Chia, Li is the Director of Tissue Engineering & Molecular Probe lab, with particularly considerable expertise in molecular assembly, biomaterial engineering and 3D-printed Personalized Implants or Organoid. We approached professor Ming-Chia, Li prior to the first engineering cycle so we could brainstorm and evaluate the limitations and advantages of Ultrabithorax (Ubx) protein in developing a biomaterial. Based on his background in biomaterial engineering, he validated the properties of Ubx, especially biocompatibility and self-assembly, contributing to its assets of developing a versatile biomaterial. Also, it is crucial that it has the potential to be bio-printed. The consultant from professor Li firmed up our decision of adapting Ubx as our biomaterial scaffold. Next, we further looked into the material structure design and its application.
Online meet-up with Professor Yu Yuan, Hsiao
We had an online meet-up with Professor Yu-Yuan, Hsiao whose province is structural biology. He has carried out several protein structure-to-function studies, thus we interviewed him about our material structure. Professor Hsiao advised us on a protein structure model to achieve a better prediction.
Online meet-up with Dr. Huai-En, Lu
Following Professor Ming-Chia, Li's advice, we further seeked Ubx material applications in tissue engineering and regeneratives. We approached Dr. Huai En Lu, who is an expert in stem cell differentiation and regeneratives and currently working on a cell culture platform . He advised us to incorporate our Ubx material with different functional proteins and apply it as scaffold implements for cell regeneratives. Furthermore, based on his current development of a cell regenerative design system, he encouraged us to develop a model to predict the effects of different ratios of components in our functional material. With his advice, we developed a color-mixing model to demonstrate protein mixing in the material.
3D Printing course & Workshops in professor Ming-Chia, Li’s lab
After consulting with professor Ming-Chia, Li and Dr. Huai En, Lu, we decided to bioprint Ubx material attributing to the advantages of the 3D printing method. First, we took the 3D printing course lectured by professor Ming-Chia, Li. We learned the principle of 3D printing and the basic requirement of bioink, and considered those criteria in our project design. Second, we joined a 3D printing workshop to learn the operation of a 3D printer machine. In the last stage of our project, we conducted viscosity and shear thinning measurement to meet the printability demands and used 3D printing method for our proposed implementation.
Enterpreunuer visit - Hung Chou Fiber Industry. Co.
Prior to commercializing the Ubx biomaterial, we did an entrepreneur visit in Hung Chou Fiber Industry to look into the current biomaterial development in the market. The CEO of Hung Chou Fiber Industry first showed us the production line of the fiber, and further provided us with the research and development advice for the future implementation. The visit has made us consider more in a very different perspective.
