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up and coming
Lewis envisions a much
larger future for the
product.
Photo: Jim Harrison
Jennifer A. Lewis is...
GIVING 3-D PRINTING A JOLT
M ost 3-D printers use a type the WYSS Institute for Biologically Inspired With multiple dispensers of living material
of plastic that can replicate Engineering. Her focus is on developing the ‘inks’ she is able to print a protein matrix and
a 3-D digital drawing. potential for printing 3-D functional materials living-cell types. The bioprints are similar to
They are used to make and devices. She holds eight patents and has what is found in the body she says, although
automotive, aviation and machinery parts, created new classes of concentrated colloidal, they are still some distance from the long-term
glasses, jewellery, coral reefs, architectural fugitive organic, polymer, hydrogel, and sol-gel goal of being able to create a whole organ.
renders, and even whole homes. inks for pen-on-paper, inkjet, roll-to-roll and Nevertheless it is a giant step in that direction.
3-D printing. Lewis and her team are pioneers of biologically-
Voxel8 has taken it to the next level, creating Recently Lewis developed ‘inks’ containing inspired engineering. Each step they take
the first 3-D electronics printer using highly key ingredients for printing 3-D tissue expands our ability to utilize the revolutionary
conductive ink. Voxel8 is the responsibility of constructs with embedded vascular networks. advances of 3-D technology including its life-
The Lewis Research Group, headed by Harvard’s “Bioprinting” is what she calls the process. saving capabilities.
genius, Jennifer A. Lewis, Sc.D., Faculty of
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