Entering a new era of 3D printing for DNAs and proteins
by Pohang University of Science and TechnologyEntering a new era of 3D printing for DNAs and proteins
https://phys.org/news/2023-04-era-3d-dnas-proteins.html
Three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting is a useful technique that has been widely utilized in our lives, ranging from reconstructive plastic surgery to artificial organ production. However, many biopolymers, such as nucleic acids, polysaccharides, and proteins, cannot be readily constructed into a desired 3D shape at the submicron- or nanoscale due to their inherent rheological and structural properties. Can we truly achieve the free-form and high-resolution structuring of various biomolecules using 3D printing technology?
A team of researchers from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at POSTECH led by Professor Seung Soo Oh, Professor Emeritus Jung Ho Je, Dr. Moon-Jung Yong, and Ph.D. candidates Un Yang and Byunghwa Kang has developed a groundbreaking 3D printing technology that directly allows precise writing and patterning of various biopolymers with full mechanical stability and functional integrity.
Their findings have been published in Advanced Science.
The research team has presented a novel 3D printing strategy that preserves the folding structure and molecular function of various biopolymers by sequentially confining, evaporating, and solidifying a biopolymer-containing solution.
Irrespective of biopolymer types, this technique can produce 3D biopolymeric architectures with precisely-controlled size and geometry at submicron resolution.
Furthermore, it allows the printed biopolymers to exhibit their own desired functions, thereby achieving pin-point localization of spatiotemporal biofunctions, including molecular recognition and catalytic reactions.
Three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting is a useful technique that has been widely utilized in our lives, ranging from reconstructive plastic surgery to artificial organ production. However, many biopolymers, such as nucleic acids, polysaccharides, and proteins, cannot be readily constructed into a desired 3D shape at the submicron- or nanoscale due to their inherent rheological and structural properties. Can we truly achieve the free-form and high-resolution structuring of various biomolecules using 3D printing technology?
A team of researchers from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at POSTECH led by Professor Seung Soo Oh, Professor Emeritus Jung Ho Je, Dr. Moon-Jung Yong, and Ph.D. candidates Un Yang and Byunghwa Kang has developed a groundbreaking 3D printing technology that directly allows precise writing and patterning of various biopolymers with full mechanical stability and functional integrity.
Their findings have been published in Advanced Science.
The research team has presented a novel 3D printing strategy that preserves the folding structure and molecular function of various biopolymers by sequentially confining, evaporating, and solidifying a biopolymer-containing solution.
Irrespective of biopolymer types, this technique can produce 3D biopolymeric architectures with precisely-controlled size and geometry at submicron resolution.
Furthermore, it allows the printed biopolymers to exhibit their own desired functions, thereby achieving pin-point localization of spatiotemporal biofunctions, including molecular recognition and catalytic reactions.