当使用生物和纳米材料时，成功与否取决于能否将灰尘和其他杂质排除在加工过程之外。 因此，对于助理教授扎赫拉·尼鲁巴克什（Zahra Niroobakhsh）和她的同事来说，罗伯特·w·灰泥自由企业和研究中心将包括一个一流的无尘室，这是个好消息。
“In the past I’ve had to use facilities in Lawrence, Kansas, for some work or order materials from elsewhere to start experiments, which can be very expensive,” says Niroobakhsh, an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering. “But now we have the 3D bioprinters … and the 洁净室, to be able to make everything right here.”
校园应用
For Niroobakhsh, “everything” covers a wide range of research interests and applications. 她经常与其他院系和学校合作，包括化学、牙科、医学和药学。
洁净室实验通常涉及设计和打印介于固体和液体之间的软纳米材料，然后研究它们在不同情况下的反应和相互作用。 因为这种材料可以一个分子一个分子地设计，Niroobakhsh和她的团队可以为各种合作研究和应用生产微小的构建模块。
例如，在石油工程中，目标可以是改进用于石油泄漏清理的乳剂，或者增强用于从油井中回收更多石油的物质。 在制药业，实验可以寻求更稳定、更有效的方法来输送药物，或者在微芯片上涂上一层可以检测病毒或疾病的材料。 在医学上，细胞的构建模块可以根据所研究的内容进行调整。
我们的新打印机将允许我们同时注入六种不同的液体，并在打印过程中切换材料。 它还具有更高的分辨率和其他功能。 We’re very excited!”
Niroobakhsh’s team has worked with Peter Koulen, a professor in the 威尼斯人娱乐城 School of Medicine who has led several groundbreaking research projects at the school’s Vision 研究 Center.
“Tissues for different parts of the body have different mechanical properties,” Niroobakhsh says. “We can ‘tune’ the biomaterials we are printing so they will produce cells with the properties needed in Dr. Koulen’s work for different parts of the eye.”
As versatile as Niroobakhsh’s work has been already, she’s looking forward to the much more advanced 3D printers available to her in the new 洁净室.
“One of my graduate students built a 3D printer we use,” she says, reflecting the school’s can-do approach. “But our new printer will allow us to inject six different liquids simultaneously and to switch materials during the print. 它还具有更高的分辨率和其他功能。 We’re very excited!”
拥抱新的可能性
Niroobakhsh用于改变和进步。 When she joined the faculty in 2018, she brought international experience to the school, having earned her doctorate in materials science and engineering at Penn State, her master’s degree in Germany and her bachelor’s degree in Iran.
她还着手建立自己的实验室，包括为她的工作采购合适的设备。 Niroobakhsh说，她的流变仪可以测量大多数材料的流动，是该地区唯一的流变仪。
她最亲密的合作者之一斯特凡·洛菲尔德（Stefan Lohfeld）也于2018年加入威尼斯人娱乐城，担任牙科学院的助理教授。 他们一起教授生物材料导论课程，使用由威尼斯人娱乐城校长C. Mauli Agrawal共同编写的教科书。 他们都在研究中使用生物打印机，并相互依赖以获得支持和观点。 他们的打印机使用不同的工艺，他们经常谈论哪一个可能对特定的任务或实验更好。
“My printer at SCE uses light to solidify liquid polymers layer by layer to build a device,” Lohfeld says. That Continuous Digital Light Process, or cDLP, “is faster as it manufactures a full layer at a time. 这对较大的结构很有用，在大规模生产中可能很重要。 But my printer can’t use multiple materials at once, unlike Dr. Niroobakhsh’s new highend machine.”
Lohfeld has a master’s in production engineering with a focus on materials sciences and his doctorate in materials sciences. 他本质上是一名在牙科学院工作的工程师。 这样做效果很好，因为牙科学院的萨拉·达拉斯和其他人是骨骼肌组织研究的领导者，而洛菲尔德是打印支架的专家，研究细胞可以在支架上生长，用于组织工程。
Lohfeld says the Plaster Center “really gives us access to technologies we haven’t had before, which allows us to expand our research on materials and their processing.”
Besides the research possibilities, Niroobakhsh is eager to have her students see what’s possible from a well-equipped clean room.
“I’m not sure yet how much access there would be for a whole class,” she says. “But the 洁净室’s walls are glass, so we will be able to show students what is being done and explain the processes. … The new facilities will have so many benefits for us.”