Department Aerospace Structures and Materials
Principal investigator Kunal Masania
E-mail address k.masania@tudelft.nl
Website www.shapingmatterlab.com
3D Printing of Lab-Grown Wood (multiple projects)
Suitable as a BEP? Yes
Suitable as a MEP? Yes
Suitable as an Academic Research Project? Yes
Techniques:
- Genetic engineering
- Plant tissue culture
- 3D Bio-Printing
- Molecular Biology
- Microscopy
- Mechanical Testing
- Data Crunching
Wood is strong, sustainable, and beautiful, but it grows slowly, and its structure is hard to control. What if we could grow wood using 3D printing? This project explores how to engineer living, cell-based wood that can be shaped and optimised on demand. You’ll investigate whether plant cells can form interconnected tissues inside a 3D print and if genetic triggers can induce real wood formation (xylogenesis) at the macroscale. Join us to push the boundaries of biofabrication, uncover how plant tissues grow, and help redefine sustainable material production. Multiple projects are available, all with unique techniques and experiments.
Further reading (click to link to article)
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compscitech.2024.110758
3D Printing Fungi-Bacteria Hydrogels as Advanced Biohybrid Materials
Suitable as a BEP? No
Suitable as a MEP? Yes
Suitable as an Academic Research Project? Yes
Techniques:
- 3D bioprinting
- Rheology
- Mechanical testing
- Co-culturing
- Confocal imaging
- Data-driven analysis
This project explores the integration of living fungi and bacteria within 3D-printed Pluronic diacrylate (PluDA) hydrogels to develop advanced biohybrid materials. PluDA hydrogels provide a versatile platform for encapsulating living organisms due to their tunable stiffness, porosity, and photocrosslinking capabilities. The first phase focuses on characterizing filamentous fungal growth, morphology, and metabolic activity within synthetic hydrogels under varying material conditions. In the second phase, bacterial strains will be co-cultured with fungi in 3D-printed scaffolds to investigate interspecies interactions and emergent properties such as enhanced self-repair, biofilm formation, or biochemical signaling. The resulting fungi-bacteria composites will serve as model systems for engineered living materials, potentially enabling the creation of sustainable, self-healing, and responsive structures for future biotechnological applications.
Further reading (click to link to article)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41563-022-01429-5
Cryogenic 3D Printer Development for Ice-Templated Living Material Scaffolds
Suitable as a BEP? No
Suitable as a MEP? Yes
Suitable as an Academic Research Project? Yes
Techniques:
- 3D printng
- CAD based design
- bio-ink formulation
- prototyping and minimal viable products
This project aims to develop a cryogenic 3D printing platform capable of fabricating ice-templated scaffolds embedded with living organisms. The system will extrude water-based bio-inks containing microorganisms such as mycelium, algae or bacteria, which will be frozen layer-by-layer using an integrated cryogenic setup. The printed ice structures will then be encapsulated within a hydrogel matrix, and upon thawing, the melted ice will leave behind interconnected channels that serve as vascular networks for nutrient delivery or mechanical reinforcement. This novel fabrication approach enables the creation of lightweight, porous, and biologically functional materials with potential applications in thermal insulation, self-repairing structures, and in-situ habitat construction. The project involves both the engineering of a temperature-controlled dual-extrusion printer and the formulation of optimized bio-inks and hydrogels for structural and biological compatibility.
Further reading (click to link to article)
https://advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/advs.202201566
(Example) projects submitted by lab in past years
(2024-2025) DNA of things: DNA data storage in materials
Supervisor: Kunal Masania, k.masania@tudelft.nl
DNA storage offers substantial information density and exceptional half-life3. We devised a ‘DNA-of-things’ (DoT) storage architecture to produce materials with immutable memory. In a DoT framework, DNA molecules record the data, and these molecules are then encapsulated in nanometer silica beads, which are fused into various materials that are used to print or cast objects in any shape. Here we study the 3D printing and recovery of data to replicate some features found in dynamic storage systems.
Techniques
- DNA synthesis
- Sequencing
- Additive manufacturing
Further reading
A DNA-of-things storage architecture to create materials with embedded memory
(2024-2025) 3D Printing of Cell-Based Wood
Supervisor: Ingo Nettersheim, i.h.m.s.nettersheim@tudelft.nl
Wood is an excellent, sustainable engineering material. However, it grows slowly and control over the micro- and macrostructure is limited. We propose that 3D printing of cell-based wood can overcome these limitations of traditional wood. This project tackles the following questions: Can we form artificial interconnected plant tissues within a 3D print? Can we genetically induce xylogenesis to form a structural macroscale material? If our endeavour is successful, we will not only give scientists new ways to study the growth and development of plant tissues in a controlled environment but also pave the way to revolutionise manufacturing with precise control over the microstructure in a sustainable manner.
Techniques
- Plant cell culturing
- Molecular cloning
- Electron- and light microscopy
- 3D printing