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US researcher Professor Paul Calvert (right) currently working at UOW... |
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Professor Tony Killard (left) from Dublin City University undertaking... |
Printing our way into a new world of medical bionics
Research teams at UOW’s Innovation Campus are establishing systems where electronics and human cells will eventually be able to ‘communicate’.
This development at the Intelligent Polymer Research Institute (IPRI) will help revolutionise future medical bionics.
A current international collaborator is Professor Paul Calvert, a materials scientist from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in the US while Professor Tony Killard, from Dublin City University, Ireland, has recently returned home following a stint at IPRI.
Professor Calvert is a world renowned expert on inkjet printing. His visit to IPRI is part of an Australian Research Council (ARC) Fellowship grant with IPRI Director Professor Gordon Wallace and Dr Marc in het Panhuis.
Inkjet printing technology offers a way to create three-dimensional biological structures for studying cell interactions and artificial organs. Researchers have now been able to adapt ordinary inkjet printers so that instead of squirting a drop of ink on to paper, they squirt cells on to samples of tissue.
“Exciting times lay ahead with Professor Calvert set to work with the IPRI team to develop new machinery to accommodate the printing of active materials such as drugs, biopolymers and electronic conductors,” according to IPRI Director, Professor Gordon Wallace.
Professor Calvert said the particular aim of the collaborative research with IPRI would be to set up systems where electronics and cells can ‘communicate’.
“This would ultimately feed into present things like pacemakers and implantable insulin pumps and future things like better nerve-driven artificial arms, control of equipment with fast reaction times, and electronic sight and hearing,” Professor Calvert said.
Professor Killard combined his expertise on electrochemical sensors with Professor Calvert and IPRI on conducting polymer nanomaterials in the project to allow printed sensors and biosensors to be integrated into electronic devices creating "miniaturised smart systems".
Professor Wallace said the ability to print active materials such as drugs, biopolymers and electronic conductors opens up some amazing new device fabrication options.
The machinery being built will eventually find its home into the new Federal Government-funded Processing and Device Fabrication Facility to be built soon on the Innovation Campus.
A number of world leaders in this emerging area will descend on the Innovation Campus in Wollongong in December for a symposium entitled “Printing of Bio-systems and Electronics” being hosted by IPRI in conjunction with the ARC Centre of Excellence in Electromaterials Science.