The material design of 3D-printing inks for biotechnology

• Applicant: Dr. Johanna Meyer
• Subject Area: Polymer Materials
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 568637738

Hydrogels, hydrophilic three-dimensionally cross-linked polymer structures, have gained increasing attention in a wide variety of applications. These can range from implants, drug delivery systems and contact lens materials to bone substitutes and stent coatings. Their properties can include stimulus responsiveness, biocompatibility, as well as tuneable mechanical and swelling properties, or antimicrobial behaviour. In turn, 3D-printing of hydrogels offers exceptional flexibility in the creation of complex structures. In this project, novel 3D-printable polymers and monomers will be synthesized, characterised, printed and surface functionalised. These polymers will be customised and evaluated for two fields of application during the project. One field of application is the detection of glyphosate, a non-selective herbicide with a broad spectrum of action that is used for vegetation control (authorisation extension until 2033). Glyphosate is considered a possible carcinogen as it accumulates in the environment, has acute and chronic effects on aquatic communities and could enter the food chain. Therefore, glyphosate detection remains an important area of research, with various established methods available for analysis. These include spectroscopic methods or gas chromatography, ion chromatography and liquid chromatography, which can be coupled with mass spectrometry. Although these methods are highly sensitive, they require lengthy analysis and sample preparation steps and are very expensive. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), an alternative method to the above-mentioned analytical techniques, uses specific antibodies. The immobilisation of antibodies on suitable surfaces offers numerous advantages, such as reusability, scalability and low mass transfer restrictions as well as the minimisation of material waste. In the second field of application, biocatalysis, the functionalised polymer surfaces will be used for the immobilisation of enzymes. Hydrogels can absorb a considerable amount of water while retaining a solid form, making them suitable for the direct uptake of enzymes. However, preliminary work has already shown a strong limitation of this technique due to mass transport limitation (diffusion of substrates and products through the gel). The covalent immobilisation of enzymes on the surfaces of the matrices is one way of overcoming this obstacle. These two fields of application are also intended to establish correlations between the material, the surface functionalisation (linker length) and the effectiveness of glyphosate detection and the performance of the enzymes (activity and stability).

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigator: Professorin Dr.-Ing. Selin Kara