Functionally Graded 3D-Printed Scaffolds through Direct Ink Writing: Bridging Ceramics and Metals for Enhanced Multifunctionality

Over two million bone grafts are performed worldwide, each year. The preferred method is using autografts, but there are two important downsides. There is often insufficient tissue to harvest and the scar at the harvesting side is painfull for the patient. Therefore there exists a great need to improve synthetic grafts.<br/><br/>Traditionally,...

Print Quality Optimisation of Upcycled Biomaterials for Ambient 3D printing

With growing concern over our reliance on non-renewable resources and the environmental impact of conventional manufacturing, the quest for sustainable materials and production processes has intensified. This pursuit has extended to the field of additive manufacturing, where bio-materials have emerged as promising alternatives, aiming to reduce...

Characterizing Interwoven: Testing and Modeling Root-Textiles

Interwoven refers to material structures made by growing plant roots into man-made patterns. Originally developed as an art piece to demonstrate root intelligence and bring attention to human-nature relations, Interwoven shows the potential to disrupt various commercial industries, especially as textile-based natural fiber reinforcements for...

The future is bio-based: Towards a sustainability transition of biomaterials lead by users

A bio-based future where biomaterials are part of everyday life is the vision and entry point of this thesis. Achieving this scenario requires changes in socio-technical systems by cutting non-renewable materials and redefining cultural and behavioural dynamics in the production-consumption value chain. With a focus on user experience, this...

Bacterial adherence on 3-D printed plasma electrolytic oxidized titanium implants in dynamic conditions

Osteoarthritis, the degeneration of articular cartilage, which causes loss of mobility and chronic pain for patients is a common condition with high clinical demand. Care of this condition currently attributes to ±1.4% of the Dutch annual health care costs, but due to the rapidly aging Dutch population a 41% increase of cases is projected over...

Ikigai: A reason for Being A Holistic Vision of Mercedes-Benz 2030

This Master thesis was developed for Mercedes-Benz AG. The following report elaborates the steps taken in developing a holistic interior vision for ‘Sustainable Luxury’ of Mercedes-Benz. In seek of representation for the future societal needs, and possible future challenges and opportunities in terms of holistic mobility conceptualisation, the...

Shape-shifting of hyperbolic surfaces: Design and analysis of a shape-shifting method for complex hyperbolic surfaces, based on a passive frame in combination with an active shape-memory polymer

Almost every tissue in the human body is curved in a certain way. Examples are the extracellular matrix of different tissues such as trabecular bone, different acini and blood vessels. As such, the ability to create complex curved structures is crucial in the development of biomimetic biomaterials that could be used, for example, for tissue...

A systematic study of macrophages’ response to submicron pillars

Objective: Advances in the field of biomaterials have positively affected implant acceptance and nowadays nanostructured surfaces are known to have a positive effect on bone regeneration. The development of the field of osteoimmunology has contributed to a steadily increasing interest towards the investigation of the immunomodulatory effect of...

Meta-biomaterials with minimal surface morphology

Triply Periodic Minimal Surfaces (TPMS) have earned great popularity in porous meta- biomaterials by cause of unique mass transfer properties, tunable mechanical properties, large pore space and high surface to volume ratio. Numerical and experimental studies suggest a great potential for TPMS-based architectures in the treatment of segmental...

Interwoven: Designing Biodigital Objects with Plant Roots: Exploring Material Structure and Experience

Interwoven is a textile grown from plant roots, showing the intelligence of plants. It is originally from the attempt of training plant roots to form a manmade pattern since 2015 by visual artist Diana Scherer based in Amsterdam. Due to fragility, it still remains an artistic work. However, Interwoven has a great potential for sustainable...

Osteogenic and angiogenic properties of strontium incorporated titanium implants

In the current day and age, osteogenic bone implants are important to reduce healing time and infections after bone implantation. To help induce bone formation, the implant surface can be biofunctionalized with different agents. A promising surface modification technique used to treat titanium implants is Plasma Electrolytic Oxidation (PEO). In...

Biomimicry: Natural topographies to control cell behaviour

The use of material properties to guide cell behaviour is often utilised in the field of regenerative medicine. Regarding this, surface topography has been shown to control different cellular processes. In nature, topographies exist in a wide variety of shapes, including hierarchical structures with a great degree of surface roughness. Here,...