Engineering Additive Manufacturing Processes Across Length Scales for Future Medical and Wearable Devices

Additive manufacturing could significantly improve medical and wearable devices through individual customization, yet improved materials and processes are needed to realize this potential. I will discuss two novel additive techniques in which an understanding of the molecular and macroscale process properties enables significant enhancement of product mechanics and other functionality. To begin, I will describe the first method for additive manufacturing of full-density cellulose objects, which is made possible by reversibly modifying the cellulose molecule.

Printed cellulose parts have strength and toughness equal to or greater than common thermoplastics, yet are isotropic due to solvation-based interlayer bonding. Furthermore, we fabricate parts with antimicrobial functionality to demonstrate the versatility of this method, which may make it favorable for manufacturing customized products in many industries where cellulose is already widely used including pharmaceuticals and medical devices. Second, I will present ongoing work towards additive manufacturing of digitally tailored surgical mesh. This research seeks to produce hernia mesh whose mechanics and geometry can be tailored to a patient to reduce the significant complications experienced by many of the 20 million people who undergo hernia surgery every year. By developing novel printer control software and deposition techniques that enable the patterning of continuous fiber, we have demonstrated the ability to locally modulate mesh mechanical response, and achieved strength and porosity comparable to surgical mesh made by traditional methods.

Bio: Sebastian Pattinson’s research aims to realize novel devices through advances at the interface between nanofabrication and additive manufacturing. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow in Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology working with Prof. John Hart. He received Ph.D. and Masters degrees in the Materials Science Department at the University of Cambridge, where he developed synthesis methods to control the structure and function of carbon nanotubes and hierarchical materials. His awards include a UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Doctoral Training Grant, a US National Science Foundation Science, Engineering, and Education for Sustainability postdoctoral fellowship, and an MIT Translational Fellowship.