Jennifer Lewis ScD ’91: “Can we make tissues that are made from you, for you?”

2025-12-09 · Source: MIT News - Robotics · Field: Science & Research — Life Sciences & Biology, Engineering & Applied Sciences · Depth: Advanced, medium

Summary

Jennifer Lewis ScD ’91, the Hansjörg Wyss Professor of Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, delivered the 2025 Dresselhaus Lecture, organized by MIT.nano, on November 3. Her presentation focused on her lab's advancements in 3D printing soft and living matter, ranging from soft robotics to human tissues. Lewis detailed the development of new 3D printing methods, sophisticated printhead designs, and viscoelastic inks that enable precise control over material composition and structure across multiple scales. She showcased the "Octobot," a fully soft autonomous robot created using sacrificial inks and an embedded printing process. Her lab is also applying these techniques to bioprinting patient-specific cardiac, kidney, and cerebral tissues, aiming to create functional organs with perfusable vasculature using a method called SWIFT (sacrificial writing into functional tissue) to avoid immunosuppression in transplant recipients.

Key takeaway

For AI Scientists and Research Scientists focused on advanced materials and bioengineering, Lewis's work highlights the potential of 3D printing to move beyond prototyping into functional, multi-scale control of soft and living matter. You should explore embedded printing and sacrificial ink techniques for developing complex soft robotics or creating patient-specific organoids and tissues, which could significantly impact regenerative medicine and personalized therapeutics.

Key insights

3D printing soft and living matter enables advanced robotics and patient-specific tissue engineering.

Principles

• Material fabrication dictates structure and properties.
• Sacrificial inks create open channels in 3D prints.

Method

The SWIFT method uses sacrificial writing into functional tissue, employing gelatin ink that changes state with temperature to create perfusable vasculature within stem cell-derived tissues.

In practice

• Engineer soft robots with embedded printing.
• Bioprint patient-specific cardiac and kidney tissues.

Topics

• 3D Bioprinting
• Tissue Engineering
• Soft Robotics
• Sacrificial Writing
• Viscoelastic Inks

Best for: AI Scientist, Robotics Engineer, Research Scientist

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Editorial summary, takeaway, and curation by AIssential. Original article published by MIT News - Robotics.