TEBL member Javier Navarro spoke at the IX Seminary on Biomedical Engineering (SIB) at the Universidad de Los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia. The event took place May 16 – 19, 2018. Javier’s talk was entitled “Assessment of the Effects of Energy Density in Crosslinking of Keratin-Based Photo-Sensitive Resin.”

The presentation was about keratin and the creation of a resin designed for 3D printing keratin. This resin was then used to determine how much energy projected during curing defines different properties of keratin hydrogels. Navarro and other TEBL members Jay Swayambunathan, Marco Santoro, and John P. Fisher found that energy density regulated the chemical reaction needed to crosslink keratin and determines how much the hydrogels crosslink. This, when taken together with its saturation nature, determine microstructural properties of the hydrogel. By understanding the role of energy density in creating the crosslinked network, they were able to adjust the printing parameters of the resin in a cDLP 3D printing system.

For more information, the IEEE proceedings article can be found here.