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Boons R, Siqueira G, Grieder F, Kim SJ, Giovanoli D, Zimmermann T, Nyström G, Coulter FB, Studart AR. 3D Bioprinting of Diatom-Laden Living Materials for Water Quality Assessment. Small 2023; 19:e2300771. [PMID: 37691091 DOI: 10.1002/smll.202300771] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/21/2023] [Revised: 08/17/2023] [Indexed: 09/12/2023]
Abstract
Diatoms have long been used as living biological indicators for the assessment of water quality in lakes and rivers worldwide. While this approach benefits from the great diversity of these unicellular algae, established protocols are time-consuming and require specialized equipment. Here, this work 3D prints diatom-laden hydrogels that can be used as a simple multiplex bio-indicator for water assessment. The hydrogel-based living materials are created with the help of a desktop extrusion-based printer using a suspension of diatoms, cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) and alginate as bio-ink constituents. Rheology and mechanical tests are employed to establish optimum bio-ink formulations, whereas cell culture experiments are utilized to evaluate the proliferation of the entrapped diatoms in the presence of selected water contaminants. Bioprinting of diatom-laden hydrogels is shown to be an enticing approach to generate living materials that can serve as low-cost bio-indicators for water quality assessment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rani Boons
- Cellulose & Wood Materials Laboratory, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Dübendorf, 8600, Switzerland
- Complex Materials, Department of Materials, ETH Zurich, Zurich, 8093, Switzerland
| | - Gilberto Siqueira
- Cellulose & Wood Materials Laboratory, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Dübendorf, 8600, Switzerland
- Complex Materials, Department of Materials, ETH Zurich, Zurich, 8093, Switzerland
| | - Florian Grieder
- Complex Materials, Department of Materials, ETH Zurich, Zurich, 8093, Switzerland
| | - Soo-Jeong Kim
- Complex Materials, Department of Materials, ETH Zurich, Zurich, 8093, Switzerland
| | - Diego Giovanoli
- Complex Materials, Department of Materials, ETH Zurich, Zurich, 8093, Switzerland
| | - Tanja Zimmermann
- Cellulose & Wood Materials Laboratory, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Dübendorf, 8600, Switzerland
| | - Gustav Nyström
- Cellulose & Wood Materials Laboratory, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Dübendorf, 8600, Switzerland
- Department of Health Sciences and Technology, ETH Zürich, Zürich, 8092, Switzerland
| | - Fergal B Coulter
- Complex Materials, Department of Materials, ETH Zurich, Zurich, 8093, Switzerland
| | - André R Studart
- Complex Materials, Department of Materials, ETH Zurich, Zurich, 8093, Switzerland
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