I spent two years developing 3D printed biocompatible bone implants in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery in the Stanford Medical School.
The research was published in the Journal of Orthopaedic Research in Summer 2017.
Clockwise from top left: custom built filament extruder for 3D printer, open top view of filament extruder, mechanical testing, size comparison of rabbit/human implants to key, close ups of printed samples.
As an undergraduate, I spent two years working in the Stanford Department of Orthopaedic Surgery's Yang Lab, working closely with my mentor and graduate students to refine a process to 3D print a functionally graded, biocompatible scaffold to treat bone defects.
I created and tested an extruder to produce filaments of varying material compositions, and produced samples for bending and compression tests. I reformulated and improved the process for generating our composite material, mitigating the rheologically crippling effects of leftover solvent as a result of the mixing process. I also used SolidWorks and RepRap to design and print the bone implants, which have successfully been tested in-vivo with rabbits. I am listed as the third author in the published manuscript in the Journal of Orthopaedic Research.