Oral: Development of a cell-degradable photopolymerizable resin for additive manufacturing

Within the field of tissue engineering, additive manufacturing (AM) techniques allow for the design, creation, and implementation of tissue engineered constructs (TEC) with complex morphologies. SLA is an AM technique which leverages UV induced polymerization of a liquid resin by irradiation of light in a layer-by-layer manner to create 3D morphologies matching that of native tissue. Furthermore, SLA allows for precise control of TEC internal structure allowing for precise pore sizes, and pore geometries allowing greater cellular infiltration. Thioketal (TK) containing polymers are an emerging class of materials with exciting potential applications within the biomedical domain. TKs are used as synthetic precursor monomers that specifically degrade by oxidative molecules such as the cell-produced signal reactive oxygen species (ROS). Current dogma suggests that ROS are implicated in tissue regeneration mechanisms and are involved in immunologic cell signaling. TK chemistries have yet to be utilized in a 3D printable manner. Therefore, we have created TK-based resins which undergo photo-crosslinking on a commercial SLA printer. Additionally, we developed multiple thiol-ene resins for variation in mechanical properties and degradation kinetics all possessing selective ROS-triggered degradation. The culmination of this work will result in novel photopolymerizable, biocompatible, cell-degradable resins for SLA 3D printing.