Biomedical Manufacturing Sample Projects

Tissue cutting procedures in healthcare settings usually involve unrepeatability due to random variables like surgeon’s human error and variance of tissue properties, making statistical analysis an important step to identify key factors. The lab's expertise in thermal analysis and cutting error identification were perfectly applied to (1) hard tissue (bone) cutting to minimize the temperature rise and chances of thermal necrosis and osteonecrosis through real-time monitoring and quantitative analysis of surgical drilling practice by surgeons and innovative cutting tool design and (2) needle deflection in cancer biopsy through physics-based modelling of cutting tool deformation and needle tip modifications for needle balancing.

The conventional fabrication process for custom assistive devices including orthoses and protheses uses multiple impressions and molds combined with silicone injection/thermoplastic forming to create the final shape. This process has not seen significant changes in decades and comes with a high cost, long wait time, and technician-dependent quality, stopping the devices from benefitting the patient in a cost-effective and timely way. One of the lab's research topics is to create a digital thread for the manufacturing process from optical scanning to computer-aided design to additive manufacturing. Digital design methodologies and additive manufacturing based fabrication protocols could reduce the cost and turn-around time while improving patient outcome. Topology optimization was conducted for printing time reduction and structural characterization of the fused deposition modelling part was carried out through Nano-CT.

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