SAMPE Boston Chapter Congratulates the University of Southern Maine and Harvard Medical School’s Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology

When Dr. Jessica Whited needed help increasing the speed and efficiency in raising axolotl salamanders for her research work on regenerating limbs in patients, where did she turn?  Well, to the Society for the Advancement of Materials & Process Engineering’s (SAMPE) local Boston Chapter, of course!

The Whited Lab at Harvard University develops tools to manipulate gene expression during limb regeneration, and explores signaling events following wound healing that initiate the regenerative process.  The lab uses axolotl salamanders in their research.  These amazing animals can regrow limbs and organs, and are the perfect subjects for this ground breaking research.  However, because these aquatic creatures must be raised individually and carefully throughout their development, until they are ready for research, daily animal management is extremely resource-intensive. Their husbandry previously required individual plastic cups or basket-like mesh containers, which were time-consuming to make and difficult to handle.  To improve upon this process, Isaac Adatto, Harvard’s Manager of Aquatics Facilities, proposed the concept to use 3D printing to Dr. Whited to produce mesh housing units that could hold multiple animals separately and be easily removed from trays filled with water for cleaning.

So, how could Dr. Whited vet out Isaac’s idea and, if valid, pull together a supply chain to solve the problem?  She turned to her local SAMPE Boston Chapter for help of course.  Dr. Whited introduced the problem and the suggested process improvement to Michael Novak, who is the Chair of the local SAMPE Boston Chapter and he knew exactly what to do.  Michael introduced Dr. Asheesh Lanba, Director of the Composites Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL) and Faculty Advisor of the University of Southern Maine SAMPE Student Chapter, to Dr. Whited.

This sparked a collaboration between Dr. Whited and Dr. Lanba to develop the materials and process needed to turn Mr. Adatto’s concept into a reality!  Dr. Lanba got to work using his students (including SAMPE student members) and using 3D modeling software to design a housing (shown above) that would accommodate the maximum number of animals fitting into a readily available shallow tray. They also researched materials safe for aquarium use and collectively decided on polyethylene terephthalate glycol (PETG), a durable, inert, waterproof, and food-safe material that will not leach harmful chemicals into the water, unlike some other commonly used 3D printing plastics.

The project has been a huge success.  Implementing 3D-printed pens for raising axolotls has resulted in faster cleaning and water exchanges, improved water quality, and more efficient use of lab space, allowing for more salamanders to be raised in shorter periods of time. This has helped Dr. Whited’s lab speed up their research and increase their efficiency.  Dr. Lanba's CERL lab now plans to make these designs available online for other researchers working with axolotls or other animals that may need to be housed in a similar manner.

So, when you need to identify solutions requiring advanced materials and processes, you need to look no further than your local SAMPE Chapter, where one of our materials & process experts can help you solve some of your toughest problems.  Join SAMPE today, so that we can help you research, network, and collaborate with industry, government, and academic leaders in advanced materials and processing technologies!  What can SAMPE do for you?