Mechanical and aerospace engineering will host Dr. David Hoelzle, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the Ohio State University. His presentation will be titled "Towards minimally invasive 3D printing of tissue engineering constructs inside the body."

Abstract: The current paradigm for tissue engineering (TE) is the manufacture of a biomaterial scaffold with or without tethered bioactive factors in vitro, maturation in a bioreactor, and then implantation via an open surgery. The surgery step has associated morbidities, which may cause the patient pain and prolonged healing time or negate the therapeutic benefits of TE. As the field of TE moves forward with ever more demonstrations of clinical translation, it is worth considering a future where TE therapies can be delivered with minimal surgical morbidities. Intracorporeal TE, defined as minimally invasive biofabrication of TE constructs inside the body, is a novel TE mode in which TE scaffolds are constructed through small surgical incisions on the order of a minimally invasive ‘keyhole’ surgical port and the body itself acts as the bioreactor for maturation.  This seminar will detail our lab development and characterization of biomaterials that are tuned for Intracorporeal TE printing, novel fixation methods for interfacing TE scaffolds with soft tissue substrates, and the development of the first-ever robotic assistive surgical system for printing materials inside the body, termed Endoscopic Additive Manufacturing.  The seminar will conclude with thoughts on future directions in functional materials for Intracorporeal TE and shared teleoperative robotic path planning for printing on soft tissue substrates deep within the body. 

Biography: Prof. David Hoelzle is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the Ohio State University.  He received his MS and PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2007 and 2011, respectively, in Mechanical Science and Engineering and his BS from the Ohio State University in 2005 in Mechanical Engineering.  Between his PhD and current position, he completed a post-doc in the Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology at the University of California, Los Angeles and held the position of Assistant Professor in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Notre Dame. His research interests lie in applied control theory and dynamics for applications in additive manufacturing, hybrid autonomous manufacturing, and surgical robotics. Prof. Hoelzle is a recipient of the 2016 CAREER Award, the 2016 Society of Manufacturing Engineers Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award, 2020 ASME Manufacturing Science and Engineering Conference Best Paper Award, and the 2023 OSU Dept. of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Ralph Boyer Young Achiever Alumni Award.