Spring 2003 -- Vol. 56, No. 2

Research:

Tissue ‘printing’

Scientists at Clemson and the Medical University of South Carolina are using desktop printers to produce three-dimensional living tissue. The work is a step toward printing complex tissues or even entire organs.

“Instead of ink, we’re substituting components such as a growth medium and cells that, just like ink, can be directed through the nozzle onto the ‘paper’ material,” says Thomas Boland, an assistant bioengineering professor at Clemson.

Other scientists include Vladimir Mironov, Roger Markwald and Thomas Trusk of MUSC, and Gabor Forgacs of the University of Missouri.

The printers were adapted by washing out the ink cartridges and refilling them with cells or supporting gels. Using a team of students whose backgrounds included electrical engineering, polymer science and bioengineering, Boland’s group altered the printer’s feed systems and reprogrammed the software that controls the viscosity, electrical resistances and temperature of the printing fluids.

By printing alternate layers of the gel and clumps of cells onto slides, Boland and Mironov have now demonstrated that three-dimensional structures can be built up. The gel is removed when the structure is complete, leaving only the living material. Other labs have printed arrays of DNA and proteins, but this is the first time scientists have printed living cells using ink jets.

“Building the blood supply is the ‘50-million-dollar question,’” says Boland. He and Mironov hope to print an entire network of arteries, capillaries and veins that nourish organs. Getting the science and technology to the point that it’s approved and widely available for use, however, could take up to 15 years.

A much quicker application could harness the technology to develop tissues for rapid drug screening. The work is partly funded by grants from NASA and the S.C. Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).

Rocket science!

Calhoun Honors student Meredith Russell of Evans, Ga., a physics major, is the recipient of the nationally competitive Goddard Scholarship for students committed to careers in aero-space science and technology.

She also received the Undergraduate Research Award from the S.C. Space Grant Consortium to perform research on solid-state materials and their possible application as advanced thermoelectric materials in NASA space probes. This summer she will work with the thermoelectric materials group at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

At press time Meredith, along with Clemson students Matt Kerr, a physics major from Orangeburg, and Joe Ziska, a computer engineering major from Dover, Del., learned they had each been awarded the Goldwater Scholarship for Excellence in Science. This marks the first time Clemson has had three winners in one year — more than Stanford, Georgia Tech, Vanderbilt, Cal Tech, UC-Berkeley and Johns Hopkins.

(Look for more on Clemson’s Goldwater Scholarship recipients in the summer issue of Clemson World.)

Defense dollars

Clemson physics and astronomy professor Terry Tritt is conducting research to improve technology essential to America’s armed forces. A $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Defense and $250,000 in matching state funds will support Tritt’s work with thermoelectric materials, which generate power when heat is applied or even refrigeration when electric current passes through them.

The technology is already used in night-vision goggles that U.S. troops use, but Tritt’s goal is to develop new materials to improve efficiency of technology that does not rely on petroleum.

Blame it on the wind

A recent study by wind researchers may alter the way scientists predict and assess hurricane risk. Clemson wind engineer Tim Reinhold is one of the researchers whose findings question whether the traditional method of measuring surface friction in tropical cyclones is accurate.

Researchers had long theorized that high wind speed makes water surface choppy and rougher, which ultimately seeps off energy from the wind, thus slowing it down.

But the new study found the opposite. Once winds exceed hurricane force of 35 meters per second (80 miles per hour), high winds actually begin to flatten the ocean surface. The smoother surface prevents the wind speed from decreasing as much as once thought.

“Momentum transfer between air and sea is critical in the development of tropical cyclones, and knowledge of the forces at work in these storms is vital to engineers building hurricane-resistant structures,” says Reinhold. “The measurements we analyzed were relevant for open ocean conditions. Now we need to see if the same results apply in shallow water near the coast.”

The study and findings team includes co-authors Reinhold and Peter Vickery of the University of Western Ontario, and lead author Mark D. Powell, with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an atmospheric scientist in the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory’s Hurricane Research Division.

Safe drinking water

Acclaimed scientist Alan Elzerman, chair of Clemson’s environmental engineering and science department, has been appointed to a task force of the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Drinking Water Advisory Council. The group of 21 specialists from universities, public utilities, government agencies and corporations advises the EPA on the nation’s drinking water supply.