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Presenter: Alice White

Alice White, PhD, Professor and Department Chair of Mechanical Engineering at Boston University, shared about her research in "Nanoscale 3D Printing to Enable Fundamental Biology Studies.”   

 Starting her career at Bell Labs, White learned useful fabrication skills.  Later, she transitioned to Boston University where she was glad to work alongside students. White emphasized the importance of going to talks that are not specific to your area of interest or expertise because you never know where they’ll take you. She said, “When you come to a fork in the road, you should take it.”

 This kind of thinking led White to become an expert in nanofabrication. Having used one of the first nanoscribe 3D printers in the United States, she has experience working with both subtractive fabrication technology, where material is printed and excess is later removed, and additive manufacturing technology. She shared that with Direct Laser Writing (DLW), she has even been able to create interlocking helices, a structure that is not easily printed.

 White identified two main applications of nanoscale 3D printing in which she is involved. The first has the potential to impact certain diseases by monitoring a nerve next to an affected organ. This is tested by printing a tiny cuff and placing it on a zebra finch nerve to measure nerve signal. 3D printing allows the cuff (or nanoclip) to be made very small, robust in motion and easy-to-insert.

 Another prominent application enables the understanding of how cells migrate in the presence of topography. Until recently, tissue damage from a heart attack was considered irreversible, but by understanding the movement of cells across various patterns, cell growth may be redirected.