Abstract

Biochemical Compatibility of Stereolithographic Resins

Noah Malmstadt, Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Southern California

While 3D printing offers a promising route to rapidly prototyping and manufacturing microfluidic systems, it relies on materials that have yet to be fully tested in a biological context. Stereolithographic 3D printing, for instance, requires polymer precursors that can be cured via free radical chain reaction polymerization, as well as associated initiators and dyes. We have examined the ability of devices printed with a variety of common SLA resin formulations to support common reactions used in molecular biology laboratories, including PCR, translation, transcription, and reverse transcription. We found that all reactions are inhibited by all materials; some to the point where there are no products present at the limit of detection. This inhibition occurs not only when the material is incubated with the reaction, but if the reaction is performed in buffer that had previously been exposed to the material, suggesting that inhibitory molecules are leached from the cured resin and into buffer. In most cases, significant activity can be recovered by performing the reaction in the presence of BSA, which potentially acts to adsorb inhibitory molecules.