Grown, Printed, and Biologically Augmented: An Additively Manufactured Microfluidic Wearable, Functionally Templated for Synthetic Microbes

Abstract

Despite significant advances in synthetic biology at industrial scales, digital fabrication challenges have, to date, precluded its implementation at the product scale. We present, Mushtari, a multimaterial 3D printed fluidic wearable designed to culture microbial communities. Thereby we introduce a computational design environment for additive manufacturing of geometrically complex and materially heterogeneous fluidic channels. We demonstrate how controlled variation of geometrical and optical properties at high spatial resolution can be achieved through a combination of computational growth modeling and multimaterial bitmap printing. Furthermore, we present the implementation, characterization, and evaluation of support methods for creating product-scale fluidics. Finally, we explore the cytotoxicity of 3D printed materials in culture studies with the model microorganisms, Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis. The results point toward design possibilities that lie at the intersection of computational design, additive manufacturing, and synthetic biology, with the ultimate goal of imparting biological functionality to 3D printed products.

3D printing of bacteria into functional complex materials

“…The incorporation of bacteria in larger synthetic structures has been achieved by multimaterial printing of support structures containing fluidic channels that are later infiltrated with a suspension of the living organisms. In contrast to this simple bacterial impregnation ( 31 ), 3D multimaterial printing of bacteria should enable the homogeneous incorporation of bacteria throughout the printed hydrogel in a one-step approach. Moreover, multiple bacterial strains can potentially be localized at specific sites within a complex architecture to study quorum sensing, bacterial growth, and migration.…”

Hybrid Living Materials: Digital Design and Fabrication of 3D Multimaterial Structures with Programmable Biohybrid Surfaces

“…To tailor the printer's capabilities for chemical signal printing, the printer was operated using a bitmap‐based printing or voxel printing technique. Using a recently developed data‐driven material modeling (DDMM) approach, a voxel‐based digital file of a 3D object was decoded into a set of Z ‐slices with a slice thickness being set by the native height resolution of the printer (32 µm).…”

“…The Objet Polyjet system provides a collection of UV‐curable acrylate‐based polymer resins that range in composition and cured material behavior, and were characterized previously . In this study, three print resins, two traditional “build materials,” rigid VeroClear (RGD810) and flexible Tango (FLX930), and one “support material” (SUP705)—conventionally a sacrificial material used to print overhangs—were used to create a panel of digital material combinations for a series of experiments to evaluate their potential use as bioactive templating materials and viable substrates for living cells.…”

Dermi‐Domus: A Grown Wardrobe for Bodies and Buildings

“…It was digitally fabricated at a wearable scale and examines the material ecology within a 3D-printed wearable that incorporates functional microbial communities. 4 Mushtari was designed to enable and inform a symbiotic relationship between two microorganisms. Photosynthetic microbes could convert sunlight into nutrients for the heterotrophs, which could in turn produce compounds for specifi c applications.…”