Proposed Implementation

Bioprint Ubx Material

In order to tailor our project design to the end users, we identified scaffolds for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine as our Ubx biomaterial implements. Among various approaches, we decided to take professor Ming-Chia, Li’s and Dr. Huai En, Lu’s advice to bioprint Ubx material attributing to advantages of 3D printing method - personalized design, high precision and on-demand creation of complex structure in a short period of time.1

Aside from the basic requirements of properties related to biocompatibility, a successful bioink also depends on the viscosity and shear thinning of the material. In professor Ming-Chia, Li's lab, we did the measurement of shear thinning to ensure the printability.

The result of viscosity vs. shear rate shows that the viscosity decreases when the shear rate increases, illustrating the properties of shear thinning.

For tissue engineering, incorporating various kinds of growth factor and functional proteins could transform our Ubx biomaterial into greater use. With appropriate functional proteins and construct, Ubx biomaterial could be printing out nerve conduits, hemostatic cotton, cartilage regenerating bone nails and even stem cell scaffolds with multifunction.

How others envision Ubx material

We envision others reengineering and redesigning our Ubx biomaterial for other applications other than scaffold. Thus, it is envisaged that the functional protein could be incorporated with Ubx to create a versatile material. Also, the protein mixing model can be adapted to simulate concentration of different proteins on the material.

A great variety of different proteins such as lipase, protease, antimicrobial protein, conductive protein, chelates, and the list goes on. Lipase, protease, antimicrobial proteins incorporated with Ubx biomaterial could be anti grease and avoid possible contamination. Conductive proteins and chelates on Ubx material can form filters that contribute to environmental conservation.