I-Corps: Laser-Biomaterial Interaction Based Prototyping Platform

这个i-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力将是为制造和/或开发用于销售和/或服务的基于细胞的模型的公司、制药公司和研究机构提供一个制造系统。该平台将允许这些实体更快地进行原型制作和扩展，更快地失败，并降低商业化成本。在缩放或更改模型时，公司通常必须完全重新设计其制造流程。有了这个系统，他们可以更快地迭代潜在的设计。缩短开发基于细胞的新模型的时间将使公众和这一重要且不断增长的领域的公司受益。此外，这项技术可以对制药公司分析/排列潜在的候选药物产生影响。这个i-Corps项目基于用于快速制作无机金属电子设备原型的技术，通常称为激光诱导正向转移。该系统集成了激光直写和激光微加工(分别是加法和减法技术)，用于微米级生物材料的操作和原型制作。细胞/生物材料可以利用激光辅助直接写入精确地转移到衬底上。在转移1-1000‘S的细胞/单元之前和/或之后，可以使用激光烧蚀来成形衬底，以产生细胞尺度的几何形状。以微米级可控和可重复的方式交替添加和减去(生物)材料允许在几乎任何几何形状和化学因素的梯度中创建细胞结构。这个i-Corps项目的一个目标是确定该技术作为平台和/或服务的商业潜力。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project will be to provide a fabrication system to companies manufacturing and/or developing cell based models for sale and/or service, pharmaceutical companies, and research organizations. The platform will allow these entities to prototype and scale quicker, fail faster, and reduce costs of commercialization. Companies often must completely reengineer their fabrication process when scaling or changing their models. With this system, they can more rapidly iterate through potential designs. Decreasing the time to develop new cell based models will benefit the public and companies in this important and growing field. In addition, the technology can have an impact in analyzing/ranking potential drug candidates for pharmaceutical companies.This I-Corps project is based on techniques used to rapidly prototype inorganic metallic electronics commonly called laser induced forward transfer. The system integrates laser direct write and laser micromachining (additive and subtractive techniques, respectively) for the manipulation and prototyping of biomaterials on a micron scale. Cells/biomaterials can be precisely transferred to a substrate using laser-assisted direct write. Before and/or after the transfer of 1-1000's of cells/units, the substrates can be shaped using laser ablation to create cell-scale geometries. Alternating addition and subtraction of (bio)materials in a controlled and repeatable way on a micron scale allows for the creation of cellular constructs in almost any geometry and gradient of chemical factors. A goal of this I-Corps project is to determine the commercial potential for the technology as a platform and/or as a service.