Printing bioelectronics

Griffin, Becky and Hardy, John and Benedetto, Alexandre (2020) Printing bioelectronics. Masters thesis, Lancaster University.

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Abstract

Bioelectronics is a rapidly expanding interdisciplinary research area, notably for the promises it holds in robotics, augmented reality, and medicine. It involves a mixture of inorganic and organic materials such as metal alloys, graphene, carbon nanotubes, or conducting polymers. This project printed 3D structures in/on the surface of Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) via direct laser writing (DLW) using a photonic Nanoscribe. The research was carried out by printing materials inside silicone coated coverslips to establish a printing technique, toxicity screening the components of the “ink” (in vivo), before printing in/on C. elegans. This was done using biologically derived conjugated monomers (e.g. pyrrole) in order to minimise any toxic effects of the printing process. 3D printing of materials in/on the surface of C. elegans was observed. The scientific leap in this project is 3D printing materials (conductive polymers) in vivo as this research has not, to the best of our knowledge, been undertaken or reported before. It opens the door to the application of technology to be applied to therapeutic devices as nerve interfaces, potentially paving the way for non-/minimally-invasive administration of electroceutical therapeutic devices in the future.