Jade Boyd

Rice University

A sample of blood vessel templates that Rice University bioengineers 3D-printed using a special blend of powdered sugars.

Laser-Welded Sugar a Sweet Path to 3D-Printed Blood Vessels

The method could be used with a much wider range of material cocktails.

Unlike most commercial SLS platforms, Rice University's OpenSLS allows researchers to work with their own powdered materials, including specialized biomaterials like polycaprolactone, or PCL, a common nontoxic polymer that was used to print these tissue-engineering scaffolds. Researcher Ian Kinstlinger developed a method for smoothing the surfaces (left) of newly printed scaffolds (right) using vaporized solvent.

Laser Cutter Hacked to Create Open-Source 3D Printer

It's 40 times cheaper, and can print intricate designs from powdered plastics and biomaterials.