3D Printing in Science Labs

3D printing is quietly revolutionizing our labs Not so long ago, if you wanted to centrifuge flasks in a rotor like this one, you’d be out of luck. The standard inserts simply didn’t exist. You either had to buy expensive custom accessories (if available at all) or transfer the cells in falcons bottles etc which is extra plastic used. 👉 But today? A quick 3D print of a well-designed adaptor, and the “impossible” becomes possible. That’s the beauty of additive manufacturing in science: It lowers barriers. It accelerates innovation. It puts problem-solving literally in the hands of every researcher. From centrifuge adaptors to tube holders, from pipette organizers to microfluidic chips — 3D printing empowers us to create what we need, when we need it. No long waits, no inflated costs, no compromise. For me, this is more than a convenience. It’s a mindset shift: Instead of asking “What’s available?”, we start asking “What can we make?” And that question opens doors. 🚀 Have you used 3D printing to solve a lab problem? I’d love to hear your examples — maybe we can build a small library of DIY solutions together.

This is DIP, Doc... Dynamic Interface Printing (DIP) is an innovative 3D printing technique that leverages an acoustically modulated air-liquid interface to create centimeter-scale structures within seconds. This novel method eliminates the necessity for complex feedback systems and specialized optics, streamlining the biological 3D printing fabrication process. DIP boasts several key advantages, including high-speed fabrication without the need for intricate chemistry & versatility across various materials, such as soft hydrogels. DIP enables the creation of complex geometries that are unachievable w/ traditional 3D printing methods. The printing mechanism of DIP involves a hollow print head submerged in a liquid prepolymer solution, with the air-liquid meniscus serving as the print interface where polymerization occurs. The shape & position of the meniscus are dynamically controlled through pressure modulation. Acoustic modulation is critical in this process, generating capillary-gravity waves that enhance mass transport and material influx, thereby improving print speed and fidelity. This technique allows for 3D particle patterning and overprinting capabilities, significantly expanding the potential applications of DIP. DIP is compatible with various materials, including PEGDA, GelMA, and HDDA, and has demonstrated high print speeds exceeding 700 μm/s for hydrogels. It is effective for hard and soft materials, making it particularly relevant for biologically significant hydrogels. The print speed in DIP is influenced by various factors such as optical power, material viscosity, and photo-initiator concentration, enabling linear print rates that are well-suited for high-viability tissue engineering.   Translational neuroscience needs advanced technological solutions like DIP, we increasingly recognize the importance of precise, high-resolution constructs for various applications, including tissue engineering and the creation of biocompatible scaffolds for neural regeneration. DIP's ability to rapidly fabricate complex geometries and high-resolution structures in situ makes it an invaluable tool for developing models that can mimic the intricate architecture of neural tissues. Moreover, the demonstrated low cytotoxicity and high cell viability of DIP-printed structures ensure that these constructs can be safely integrated into biological systems, paving the way for groundbreaking advancements in neural tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. The potential for high-throughput applications, such as simultaneous fabrication in multi-well plates, further underscores the scalability and versatility of DIP, making it an ideal candidate for research and clinical applications in neuroscience and psychiatry. Future work may explore sophisticated patterning strategies & enhanced acoustic modulation techniques, unlocking new possibilities for the treatment of brain disorders and the development of personalized medicine.

Engineers can print a child’s airway splint inside a jar of gel. No supports. No extra plastic to prop it up. They drew it in open space and the gel held the shape until it set. For years, 3D printing has had one constant problem: gravity. Print an overhang and it sags. Print a bridge and it droops. So we add supports, then snap them off and throw them away. Printing inside a yield-stress gel flips that. What standard printing forces you to do: ↳ Build layer by layer on a flat bed ↳ Spend 30–50% extra material on supports ↳ Avoid complex internal channels ↳ Watch soft materials slump under their own weight What gel printing allows: ↳ Print upward, sideways, even in midair ↳ Skip supports entirely ↳ Make branches, knots, and enclosed paths ↳ Keep delicate bioinks suspended until they solidify The best example is the one that matters most. A child who needs a custom airway splint doesn’t have to accept a simplified design “because the printer can’t do it.” Surgeons can match the patient’s CT scan—curves, branches, everything. The gel holds each turn while the material sets, then rinses away with water. The same method is making soft robotic tentacles with internal fluid channels, bio-inspired grippers, and vessel-like networks for lab-grown tissue. Where it goes first: ↳ Patient-specific implants that fit the body exactly ↳ Soft robots with shapes you couldn’t print before ↳ Aerospace parts once the materials clear certification Medicine leads because each part can be worth $10,000+. And the real change isn’t a new printer. It’s a new rule set. We’ve been designing for “down.” Now we can design for the shape we actually need. __________ Inspired by: Brunel et al. (2024), Advanced Healthcare Materials, on embedded 3D bioprinting of collagen in microgel baths — and related work in support‑bath printing, soft robotics, and patient‑specific implants.

Researchers 3D printed materials directly inside the body for the first time. They used a technique called deep tissue in vivo sound printing (or DISP), which could change how doctors deliver treatments and repair tissue. Developed by scientists at Caltech, DISP works by injecting a specialized bioink into the body and then using focused ultrasound to activate it deep within tissues—something older methods like infrared-based printing couldn’t do, since they only reach just beneath the skin. The key innovation is that the bioink contains crosslinking agents trapped inside temperature-sensitive liposomes. When ultrasound heats the area to just above body temperature, the liposomes release these agents, triggering the ink to form into solid hydrogel at precise locations inside muscles or organs. In lab tests, researchers printed detailed shapes like stars and teardrops inside live rabbits, up to 4 cm below the skin, with no signs of toxicity. One version of the ink included a cancer drug, doxorubicin, and was tested on 3D cultures of bladder cancer cells. The printed hydrogel released the drug slowly over several days and proved more effective than standard injections, killing more cancer cells. Another version used conductive materials like carbon nanotubes and silver nanowires to create implants that could monitor temperature or electrical signals, useful for heart or muscle diagnostics. Importantly, the leftover bioink naturally cleared from the body within seven days, and the hydrogels remained stable and safe. This approach opens a new direction for minimally invasive medical treatment and personalized care. learn more https://lnkd.in/dqD35YD7

During my PhD, I was often asked one question: “How are your 3D-printed microfluidic devices so transparent?.” If you work with SLA-printed microfluidics, you already know that prints usually come out cloudy or milky instead of glass-clear. And this is a real problem when you need optical access for imaging, alignment, or experiments. Printers have improved a lot in the last years. I honestly don’t know if today’s machines can already produce glass-clear parts directly, but when I was printing (2–3 years ago), the results were always slightly cloudy without post-processing. Here are two simple and practical tricks I used to significantly improve transparency. They’re not the best techniques scientifically, but they’re among the easiest and most accessible. 1) Acrylic conformal coating After printing and post-curing, spray a thin layer of acrylic conformal coating (for example from RS). Let it dry for a few minutes, and you’ll see an immediate improvement. Important tip: seal the inlets and outlets before spraying so the coating does not enter the channels. 2) Resin re-coating + short UV curing Take a small amount of the same resin you used for printing. Apply a very thin layer on the top and bottom surfaces. Then place the part under UV for about 5 minutes. This second method gave me the best result. In the photo: The top row shows raw printed parts with limited transparency. The bottom row shows the same parts after surface treatment, mainly the last two. The last Petri dish on the right is after resin re-coating and short UV curing. I should have shared this during my PhD. But it’s never too late to share practical lab knowledge. If you work with SLA microfluidics: Have you found better or easier ways to improve transparency? #3Dprinting #microfluidics #biotech #SLA #PhDjourney

To support our research in solvent extraction, we make our own centrifugal contactors using additive manufacturing (3D printing). Although mixer–settlers are the workhorses of solvent extraction in the hydrometallurgical industry, they have several drawbacks, including a large footprint, slow phase disengagement, and high solvent and metal inventories. Centrifugal contactors mitigate many of these limitations. Their key advantage lies in combining the mixing and separation steps within a single compact unit, enabling efficient mass transfer and rapid phase disengagement. The main barriers to wider adoption of centrifugal contactors are their complex fabrication requirements and the need for tight mechanical tolerances, which translate into high CAPEX. In this collaborative work within SIM2 KU Leuven (SOLVOMET R&T Centre and the ProcESS group), we are exploring the integration of additive manufacturing (AM), also known as 3D printing, into centrifugal contactor design. Additive manufacturing offers a promising route for rapid, cost‑effective prototyping and design optimization, enabling broader exploration of geometries and operating principles. However, implementing additive manufacturing in centrifugal contactor design also presents challenges. Issues such as surface roughness, dimensional accuracy, and mechanical integrity, although improving significantly with advances in metal sintering and high‑resolution polymer printing, can still impact hydrodynamics and mass‑transfer performance. In a recent paper, we developed a fully functional 3D‑printed annular centrifugal contactor and successfully applied it for the separation of cobalt and nickel. We systematically investigated the influence of annular gap size, rotational speed, and flow rate on both separation performance and energy consumption. For more information, read our paper: Design and testing of 3D-printed annular centrifugal contactors for the hydrometallurgical separation of cobalt and nickel Dries Versteyhe, Jonas Van Olmen, Koen Binnemans, Tom Van Gerven Chemical Engineering Research and Design 228 (2026) 484-495. DOI: 10.1016/j.cherd.2026.03.012 Download it here for free (until May 2, 2026): https://lnkd.in/eW3RjK77 Funded by CICERO Project and Research Foundation Flanders - FWO #AdditiveManufacturing #3DPrinting #SolventExtraction #Hydrometallurgy #MetallurgicalChemistry #CentrifugalContactor #ChemicalEngineering #Cobalt #Nickel #RareEarths #REEs #CriticalRawMaterials

How can we create scalable, interface-free 3D electrocatalysts with nanoscale features? 🎉 Thrilled to share that my last work before joining MIT (started in early 2022) has just been published in Nature Communications! Nature Portfolio 📄Article: https://lnkd.in/eEjnHedp 🔬 We developed a scalable 3D printing framework that builds nanoscale features directly into macroscale catalytic electrodes—avoiding the weak interfaces that often occur when coating nanomaterials onto a substrate. By designing a 3D architecture with hierarchical curvatures, we induced the formation of screw dislocations during growth. These dislocations not only create interface-free surface nanostructures but also generate 3D lattice strains in the material that lower reaction energy barriers and enhance nitrate adsorption. 🚀 Using this 3D architected catalyst that is mechanically more robust than conventional foams, we built an integrated three-chamber reactor for nitrate reduction, achieving over 200 h of stable operation at ~350 mA cm⁻² with more than 90% Faradaic and collection efficiency—showcasing strong potential for industrial applications. 👏 Kudos to Liqiang Wang and Di Yin for continuing and leading this project after I left, and huge thanks to mentors Prof. Yang Lu, Prof. Johnny Ho, and Prof. Xu Song, as well as collaborators Junhao Ding, Huangliu Fu, Xin Zhou, Rui Li, Mengxue Chen, Xinxin Li for making this work possible. #MultifunctionalMetamaterials #3DPrinting #ArchitectedMaterials #Electrocatalysis #Sustainability

In the DREAMS Lab at Virginia Tech's latest paper, we detail Ian Ho's efforts at creating a heated hybrid material extrusion #additivemanufacturing system that allows us to dispense (and sinter) conductive inks inside a heated print volume. With this, we can create 3D multi-functional parts from high-performance polymers (PPS, PEI, etc., which require a heated chamber) with embedded functional circuits. By actively cooling the #DIW print head, we prevent the conductive ink from prematurely cooling and clogging the nozzle. In the video below, we demonstrate printing a PPS #3dprinted part with conformal conductive traces (featuring vias) that are sufficiently conductive to transmit power and data - all within a single system. More details are available in this open-source manuscript in Additive Manufacturing Letters: https://lnkd.in/eepUGMVU Virginia Tech Mechanical Engineering ; Virginia Tech Made

What can you do with a camera, a 3D printer, and a Raspberry Pi? In this case, build a high-throughput instrument to study reaction kinetics. As ML modeling becomes central to chemical discovery, there's a growing need for simple, scalable tools that can generate research data at scale, without specialized facilities or million-dollar budgets. This is especially important to democratize access to data-driven science by under-resourced institutions and teaching-focused labs. PRISM (Parallelized Reaction-rates via Indicator Spectrometry using Machine vision), developed by Gabe Gomes et al., showcases how such low-budget, high-throughput solutions based on colorimetric detection can be built to study reaction kinetics at scale. Here's how they built PRISM: 🔹A 3D-printed reactor accommodates 96-well plates for parallelized experiments 🔹pH-sensitive indicator dyes signal reaction progress via visible color change 🔹A Raspberry Pi with a bottom-mounted camera captures real-time image data 🔹Image analysis software extracts RGB values to compute reaction dynamics 🔹A classification model identifies whether a reaction's rate is measurable within the PRISM framework The team collected 1,162 rate constants for amide coupling reactions to determine the mechanistic pathway, which was confirmed through DFT simulations. A GNN (graph neural network) model was also trained on the data to predict reaction rates for out-of-sample compounds. This work is a nice example of integrating low-cost automation, experiment design, and predictive modeling to accelerate chemical research and broaden participation in data-driven discovery. 📄 Democratizing Reaction Kinetics through Machine Vision and Learning, ChemRxiv, November 20, 2025 🔗 https://lnkd.in/e-QQGJvr