 | Pictured with a laboratory based ink jet printer are (l to r) Profes... Pictured with a laboratory based ink jet printer are (l to r) Professor Paul Calvert (University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, USA), Director of the Intelligent Polymer Research Institute, Professor Gordon Wallace, and Dr Marc in het Panhuis from the School of Chemistry |
Printing living cells on workshop agenda
7 Dec 2007 | Renee Criddle
The advent of desktop ink jet printing revolutionised the world of personalised printing. The advent of laboratory based ink jet printers is revolutionising the world of advanced materials and fabricated structures containing them.
Ink jet printing with nano (or minute) dispersions opens up the possibility of fabricating multiple, inexpensive chemical and bio sensing systems – even printable batteries for energy storage and eventually printable platforms for biomedical devices.
In light of this, the University of Wollongong is conducting an international workshop on ink jet printing functional materials this week (6 and 7 December).
One of the topics on the agenda today is an address by Professor Paul Calvert from the University of Massachusetts who will highlight how scientists are already using inkjet cartridges to “print” stem cells into exacting patterns. And engineers are taking the technology to a whole new dimension by exploring ways to print 3-D structures of cells.
The workshop will be told that the creation in the future of implantable human organs with an inkjet printer isn’t as far fetched as it might seem.
Recent advances in nanotechnology have enabled many highly functional materials to be more processable including improved printability. The workshop is examining the fundamental physical and chemical properties of solutions/dispersions that are required to enable high resolution ink jet printing.
In addition, the most recent advances in fabricating practical devices by ink jet printing will be presented by each of the invited speakers.
Speakers include Professor Paul Calvert (University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, USA); Professor Gyoujin Cho (Sunchon National University, Korea); Dr Aoife Morrin (Dublin City University, Ireland); Dr Arun Vijayan (CSIRO); Dr Bjorn Winther-Jensen (ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science -- ACES); and Dr Marc in het Panhuis (University of Wollongong).
Workshop organisers are the Director of ACES*, Professor Gordon Wallace, and Dr Marc in het Panhuis (Intelligent Polymer Research Institute).
* The ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES) brings together eminent scientists developing the nano-science and nano-technology related to the movement of electric charge within, and between, materials. ACES studies these processes as they are fundamentally important to a diverse array of phenomena in many biological and industrial processes. The host node of ACES is the Intelligent Polymer Research Institute (IPRI), located at the University of Wollongong. IPRI's competencies lie in the design and synthesis of novel intelligent materials, with the team renowned for expertise in the electrochemistry of organic conductors; especially in the applications of artificial muscles, photovoltaics, batteries, and biomedical applications.
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