27th Annual CBE Graduate Student Research Symposium

Dan Ammon, BS 1991, PhD 1999, believes in bringing disruptive medical devices to market that have a positive impact on people’s lives. As Global Vice President of R&D at Regenity Bioscience, a leader in regenerative medical devices, he works to develop other engineers and scientists to increase their impact on the health industry. His technical interests are in the fields of surface engineering, polymers, hydrogels, drug delivery, regenerative medicine, additive and subtractive manufacturing, and composites and ceramics focused on Medical Device applications.

Ammon’s experience in the medical device industry includes 18 years in ophthalmics and nearly 11 years in dental at DentsplySirona, leading their consumables platform. His teams have launched over 80 products and filed nearly as many patent applications. In addition to being named a fellow of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), he also serves as a board member for the Surfaces in Biomaterials Foundation, and is an AIMBE fellow whose members represent the top 2% of medical device engineers.

Digital manufacturing techniques based on additive manufacturing (AM), 3D printing, are changing the way custom medical devices are produced. Traditional dentures have been designed and manufactured by the same means for over 100 years. Today, digital dentures, produced in North America, through AM, can be 3D printed on as few as 1800 digital light processing (DLP) printers. Here, we will review the denture market dynamics and the denture digital workflow including scanning, designing, hardware, software, materials, and post processing. We will also discuss the final product manufacturing and physical properties which resulted in the first FDA cleared, 3D printed, smart polymer, medical device. This product can serve as an example of how AM can have a positive impact on patients’ lives.

A Logic-Based Modeling Study of Glucose-Mediated Immune Response in Diabetic Kidney Disease

Student Choice Research Award:

Dinesh Kumar Behera: A Facilitated Transport Membrane Composed of Restricted Ionic Liquid in Graphene Oxide/Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube Framework for Efficient Carbon Capture.

Excellence in Biological Research Award:

Debanik Choudhury: Glutamine Metabolism is linked to Age-associated Loss of Skeletal Muscle Function

Excellence in Computational Research Award:

Jinhui Li: Effects of Anti-inflammatory Drugs on Lipid Bilayers, Insights from Thermodynamics & Molecular Modeling

Excellence in Materials Research Award:

Richard Ciora: A Bifunctional Membrane Reactor for Direct Synthesis of LPG via CO2 Hydrogenation