Talk:CH391L/S13/Cell Scaffolding and Printing

• Dwight Tyler Fields 16:22, 15 April 2013 (EDT): Several times you mention the "lack of avalable materials" for these processes? This seems like a both a big challenge and a big opportunity for innovation. Can you elaborate on the biomaterials used for creating these various scaffolds and organs, and why they aren't available, and maybe any advances in solving this problem that synthetic bio is solving or might solve?
  • Evan Weaver 12:43, 16 April 2013 (EDT): My guess is that the reason why lots of biomaterials aren't compatible with these scaffolding processes is because these materials don't have the right properties. For example, some biomaterials wouldn't be able to be dissolved and used in electrospinning. I'll update the page with the actual biomaterial names and molecular formulas.

• Dwight Tyler Fields 16:31, 15 April 2013 (EDT): I get the impression from your page that current printing technology available to consumers, like that made by MakerBot, is not that different from the scaffolding printers you discuss. What would it take to upgrade a consumer 3D printer (or regular ink jet, etc) to do this kind of thing? Just a different material?
  • Evan Weaver 12:50, 16 April 2013 (EDT): Here's a cell printer that you can buy online, its probbly super expensive. http://www.digilabglobal.com/celljet Here's a step-by-step guide to creating a ink-jet cell printer. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3353707/ I can't believe this thing works.

• Kevin Baldridge 16:35, 15 April 2013 (EDT):A better introduction would be helpful for the cell printing section, maybe talk about applications and problems with cell printing vs scaffolding. the same information could be included as a general page intro before you delve into scaffolding topics. Also, I hate that the talk page just rejects what you type if someone else saved it because all the time I have to retype my comments.