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SELECTBIO Conferences Innovations in Microfluidics & 3D-Printing Europe 2024

Kai Melde's Biography



Kai Melde, Group Leader, Heidelberg University

Kai Melde is interested in acoustic particle manipulation, assembly and liquid handling. He studied mechatronics at the Technical University of Dresden (Germany) and in 2009 he started to work at the Palo Alto Research Center (California, USA) as a member of the technical staff. In 2013 he joined the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (Germany) as a researcher and in 2019 received his Ph.D. in conjunction with the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Germany). Since October 2023 he heads an independent research group at Heidelberg University, which is funded by the Carl Zeiss Foundation.

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Ultrasound – A New Tool for Biofabrication

Monday, 25 March 2024 at 11:00

Add to Calendar ▼2024-03-25 11:00:002024-03-25 12:00:00Europe/LondonUltrasound – A New Tool for BiofabricationInnovations in Microfluidics and 3D-Printing Europe 2024 in Rotterdam, The NetherlandsRotterdam, The NetherlandsSELECTBIOenquiries@selectbiosciences.com

Biofabrication includes methods that print bioinks or directly assemble biological components (e. g. cells, microgels or spheroids) with the goal of creating functional tissues. Most of these methods require direct mechanical access (e. g. extrusion printing or aspiration-based pick & place) and work serially (point-by-point or layer-by-layer), which scales poorly to volumetric shapes and applies undue stress on biological cells. Over the last decade, ultrasound emerged as a tool for contactless manipulation of matter, including microparticles and biological cells. Its ease-of-use and favorable operating parameters led to a wide adoption especially in the microfluidics community (e. g. for cell sorting). However, the effects of ultrasound can act over much larger length scales, provided that there is sufficient control over the sound field. In this talk, I will present how ultrasound combined with holographic beamforming enables us to create very complex sound fields, which can direct the parallel assembly of matter to arbitrary shapes in 3D. Our technique is compatible with standard labware (such as sample tubes, culture inserts or cuvettes) and shown to work with solid microparticles, hydrogel beads and mammalian cells. As such, ultrasound promises to become a new tool for biofabrication, enabling the formation of cell aggregates without contact.


Add to Calendar ▼2024-03-25 00:00:002024-03-26 00:00:00Europe/LondonInnovations in Microfluidics and 3D-Printing Europe 2024Innovations in Microfluidics and 3D-Printing Europe 2024 in Rotterdam, The NetherlandsRotterdam, The NetherlandsSELECTBIOenquiries@selectbiosciences.com