Polymer Particle Formation Using Inkjet Printing

Exciting advances have been made in biomaterials research, through both relating material properties to cell response and discovery of new materials via high throughput screening. This area of research is still hindered though by the paucity of information on the physicochemical parameters governing the response of cells to a broad range of materials. Herein, a combinatorial library of biodegradable, photocrosslinkable and microparticle-forming polymers is generated by transforming a macro-performed pipetting experiment into a micro-sized piezoelectric inkjet printing. Physiochemical properties such as density, polymerization rate, surface tension, viscosity and solubility have been shown to be critical for successful single and multiple polymer structured microparticles. The vision is to mature this effort for applications that require biocompatibility such as drug delivery and cell carriers in regenerative medicine strategies to engineer cell functions.