Growing a second skin : towards synthetic biology in product design

Synthetic biology is a rapidly growing engineering discipline widely used in biotechnological applications. However, there are few examples of using synthetic biology in product design and there are even fewer - perhaps no - examples of incorporating fluids containing synthetic organisms and biomolecules into a product. The goals of this thesis are two-fold. First, the author investigates how to contain and control fluids in 3D printed fluid channels. 3D printing methods are characterized by their ability to create fluidic channels that are compatible with biochemistry and culturing microorganisms. Second, the author explores how to design the materiality and geometry of the fluid channels to affect biological function. These goals are pursued in two distinct projects: DNA assembly in 3D printed fluidics and Mushtari, a fluidic wearable designed to contain cyanobacteria and E. coli cultures. Contributions include (1) characterizing the resolution of three 3D printing methods for creating fluidic channels, (2) demonstrating compatibility of 3D printing methods with cell culture and DNA assembly biochemistry, (3) demonstrating the capability to print wearable-scale millifluidic networks up to 58 meters in length, and (4) developing approaches for fabricating geometrically complex fluidic systems.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Materials Science and Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2015

Author dc:creator

• Patrick, William Graham, S.M. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Neri Oxman.

• Materials Science and Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/98918

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/98918