Winter 2016: Energy Evolution
From carbon dioxide conversion to landfill mining, researchers at UTA are seeking viable alternative energy options.
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From carbon dioxide conversion to landfill mining, researchers at UTA are seeking viable alternative energy options.
Found in everything from space shuttles to dental fillings, composite materials have thoroughly infiltrated modern society. But their potential is still greatly untapped, offering researchers ample opportunity for discovery.
Within the particle showers created at the Large Hadron Collider, answers to some of the universe’s mysteries are waiting.
Model systems like pigeons can help illuminate our own evolutionary and genomic history.
UT Arlington's tiny windmills are bringing renewable energy to a whole new scale.
The stability of our highways, pipelines, and even manholes is reaching a breaking point.
Scientists believe they have discovered a subatomic particle that is crucial to understanding the universe.
UT Arlington researchers unlock clues to the human body’s most mysterious and complex organ.
UT Arlington researchers probe the hidden world of microbes in search of renewable energy sources.
Wounded soldiers are benefiting from Robert Gatchel’s program that combines physical rehabilitation with treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder.
Tiny sensors implanted in the body show promise in combating acid reflux disease, pain and other health problems.
Nanotechnology researchers pursue hybrid silicon chips with life-saving potential.
Biomedical engineers combat diseases with procedures that are painless to patients.
Human tissue and organs from a 3-D printer? It could be possible, if Kyungsuk Yum and his research team are successful. The materials science and engineering assistant professor is developing bioinks, the first step in what could lead to 3-D printing of human body parts.
The process for bioprinting requires inks that are both 3-D-printable and biocompatible. Current bioinks are mostly made from a polymer solution that encapsulates cells. But since they are in a liquid state, the bioinks spread, making them difficult to use in printing 3-D tissue structures that are self-supporting and high-resolution.
“Ideally, bioinks should be liquid-like during the printing process, but solid-like after,” explains Dr. Yum.
His team is developing a nanocomposite ink that incorporates carbon nanotubes. The result, Yum hopes, will be that the ink will change its mechanical properties, working as liquid during printing and reverting to solid after.
“If we’re successful, we’ll be able to print more complex, 3-D tissue structures with higher resolution that are more similar to those within our body,” he says. “From there, we can work to develop a new technology that will eventually lead to printing physiologically relevant 3-D tissues and, ultimately, working organs.”
Yum has earned a $100,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to fund his development of the bioinks.
“The broad application of his research can impact the future of the field and it could change lives,” says Stathis Meletis, chair of the Materials Science and Engineering Department. “UTA’s emphasis on innovation is already paying dividends.”