Grants and Contributions:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year. (2017-2018 to 2022-2023)

The manipulation of solid particles in small scales has numerous applications including blood cell counting in hematology labs, fabrication of organs for implants and drug discovery, removal of bacteria from drinking water and monitoring particulate matter concentrations in air pollution. The efficiency of many of these applications strongly depends on the interaction of the particles with the surrounding fluid. The characterization of these interactions, however, becomes more challenging due to the decreased length and time scales in these miniaturized technologies.

The proposed research program will focus on the theoretical and experimental aspects of the solid particle transport in rapidly changing small scale flows with direct application in the field of bio-printing. Bio-printing technologies have emerged to address the growing need for developing living tissue constructs that mimic the behaviour of the human body, and can be used for drug development or fabrication of functioning organs. As a new generation of bio-printers, inkjet printers have been utilized for controlled dispensing of living cells and biomaterials into specific patterns designed by computers. However, current inkjet bio-printers lack consistency, and face other problems including frequent nozzle clogging.

The proposed program will fundamentally address the above mentioned challenges through the study of cell transport within the inkjet nozzles and microfluidic channels. In particular, a high speed imaging setup and numerical model will be developed to characterize the performance of inkjet cell printing systems. To increase the inkjet cell printing reliability, the use of viscoelastic bio-inks will be explored; the effects of rheological manipulation of bio-inks on the cell printing consistency will be studied.

The fundamental knowledge of this novel research program can be applied in the development of technologies for handling solid particles in the small scale. These technologies will strengthen Canada’s position as a leading country in advanced manufacturing and biotechnology fields. The HQP that will be trained in this program will be well suited to join the growing job market of these respective industrial fields.