Programmable Architected Materials
PROJECT ABSTRACT
The proposed program of research will establish the basic science required to create programmable architected materials with extraordinary properties. Advancement of this science base will enable rapid design and fabrication of heterogeneously integrated, functional and structural materials in unusual, and as yet unimagined, geometric layouts. Towards this objective, we will pursue an innovative scientific and technical approach that focuses on: (1) programmable assembly and disassembly of anisotropic building blocks with spatial and temporal control within tunable polymeric matrices, (2) microscale printheads for programmably encoding local composition, anisotropic filler orientation, and matrix stiffness “on-the-fly” during printing, and (3) new hybrid, rotational, core-shell, and biomimetic printing methods for fabricating complex, multi-material architectures that exhibit exceptional properties and performance. This research will yield the foundational materials science, fluid mechanics, and manufacturing science required for creating programmable architected materials via nextgeneration 3D and 4D printing techniques. Broad outcomes that enable transformative scientific and engineering advances in flexible electronics, sensors, lightweight composites, and shapemorphing architectures of critical interest to the DoD are expected.
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Programmable Assembly of Functional Human Tissues
ABSTRACT
(Approved for public release)
The proposed program of research will establish the foundational science required to create programmable human tissues across multiple scales replete with native organ function. This advancement will enable the rapid design and fabrication of complex, multicellular human tissues spanning from stem cell-based organ building blocks to whole organs. While our research will lead to foundational advances relevant for bioengineering multiple organ-specific tissues, we will focus on creating functional cardiac tissues for repair and replacement. Driven by this overarching goal, we will pursue a blue-sky technical approach that focuses on: (1) generating renewable supplies of cardiomyocyte and non-myocyte cells from wildtype and orthogonally differentiated human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs), (2) assembling these cell populations on massively parallel micropillar arrays to create chamber-specific, organ building blocks (OBBs) that exhibit the desired cellular density, alignment, and function, (3) manufacturing aligned, vascularized cardiac tissues via embedded bioprinting of atrial OBB, ventricular OBB, and sacrificial (vascular) inks, and (4) embedded electroporative printing of a conduction system composed of specialized cardiomyocytes that are genetically programmed “on-the-fly” during their patterning within functional cardiac tissues. Expected outcomes from this transformative program of research include the scalable assembly of genetically programmed cardiac cells, multicellular building blocks, and functional tissues of critical interest to the DoD mission for target applications ranging from drug discovery and chem/bio agent screening to repair, replacement, and regeneration of human organs.