(188bt) Integrating Non-Printed Materials into 3D-Printed Devices for Quantitative Biological Measurements

The use of 3D-printing has enabled scientists to create tools to fit their exact research needs in a rapid and reproducible manner, especially when developing new methods for molecular analysis and measurements, or improving established methods. 3D-printing techniques developed by our lab have been used to create new tools to study protein-binding, cell-to-cell communication, and cell-permeability. Here, two new devices were fabricated for studying protein-binding. The first device is for performing equilibrium-dialysis with direct plate-reader quantitation of the analyte-ligand. The ability of the device to fit directly into well plate-readers enables lab automation. The second device is for performing ultrafiltration experiments and is designed for more rapid protein-binding measurements of macromolecular-ligands. All of the devices are enabled by direct incorporation of different membranes or materials of the user’s choice during the print process by a Poly-jet printing technique called Print-Pause-Print. Printing techniques were also developed to print the devices without the use of support material, an undesirable waxy substrate that can interfere with chemical measurements. The devices and applications shown here were printed on a Polyjet-style printer. The devices were characterized by measuring the binding affinity of zinc to a common bloodstream protein, albumin, under physiological conditions. The measured binding constant (K_d = 5.62 ± 0.93 × 10^–7 M) was statistically equal to that reported in the literature, confirming the ability of the device to perform protein-binding experiments.