Flexible material formulations for 3D printing of ordered porous beds with applications in bioprocess engineering

Dimartino, Simone; Galindo-Rodriguez, Giuseppe Rafael; Simon, Ursula; Conti, Mariachiara; Sarwar, M. Sulaiman; Athi Narayanan, Selva Manikandan; Jiang, Qihao; Christofi, Nick

Abstract

Background
3D printing is revolutioning many industrial sectors and has the potential to enhance also the biotechnology and bioprocessing fields. Here, we propose a new flexible material formulation to 3D print support matrices with complex, perfectly ordered morphology and with tuneable properties to suit a range of applications in bioprocess engineering.

Findings
Supports were fabricated using functional monomers as the key ingredients, enabling matrices with bespoke chemistry, such as charged groups, chemical moieties for further functionalization, and hydrophobic/hydrophilic groups. Other ingredients, e.g. crosslinkers and porogens, can be employed to fabricate supports with diverse characteristics of their porous network, providing an opportunity to further regulate the mechanical and mass transfer properties of the supports. Through this approach, we fabricated and demonstrated the operation of Schoen gyroid columns with (I) positive and negative charges for ion exchange chromatography, (II) enzyme bioreactors with immobilized trypsin to catalyse hydrolysis, and (III) bacterial biofilm bioreactors for fuel desulphurization.

Conclusions
This study demonstrates a simple, cost-effective, and flexible fabrication of customized 3D printed supports for different biotechnology and bioengineering applications.

Citation

Dimartino, S., Galindo-Rodriguez, G. R., Simon, U., Conti, M., Sarwar, M. S., Athi Narayanan, S. M., …Christofi, N. (2022). Flexible material formulations for 3D printing of ordered porous beds with applications in bioprocess engineering. Bioresources and Bioprocessing, 9(1), Article 20. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40643-022-00511-9

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 22, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Mar 12, 2022
• Publication Date: 2022
• Deposit Date: Mar 31, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 31, 2022
• Journal: Bioresources and Bioprocessing
• Publisher: Springer
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 9
• Issue: 1
• Article Number: 20
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40643-022-00511-9
• Keywords: Biomaterials, Additive manufacturing, Chromatography, Immobilized enzyme bioreactor, Bacterial biofilm bioreactor
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/2859662