Hair-sized 3D printed ‘camera’ for heart disease detection

About this webinar

In this webinar, biomedical engineer Dr Jiawen Li will share her team’s experience in research translation and industry-university collaboration. She will discuss their work in developing of 3D printed’ camera’, which is the size of human hair, for more accurate heart disease detection. Reliable detection of high-risk plaques, which are the main cause of heart attacks, usually requires large optical microscopes.

Finally, yet importantly, Dr Li will also share what they have learnt through this project and beyond on how to enable effective interdisciplinary and university-industry collaboration.

Further information

Significant investments have been made by federal and state governments to support R&D, research translation and commercialisation in the coming years.

The application of multiphoton 3D-printing (a commercially available nanofabrication technology) allows the reliable fabrication of miniaturised freeform lenses (<0.3mm) that were impossible to make. The ability to provide microstructural information with the hair-sized 3D-printed ‘camera’ opens a gateway for novel, minimally invasive applications in disease. 

About the speaker

Dr Jiawen Li
Senior Lecturer, The University of Adelaide

Dr Jiawen Li is a Fellow of NHMRC, National Heart Foundation and L’Oréal-UNESCO, and a Senior Lecturer at the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, the University of Adelaide. She has secured >$2 million in research funding as the chief investigator and won numerous prestigious awards/honours - including the national Superstar of STEM, Australian Optical Society Geoff Opat Prize, and SA Women in Innovation Award. She develops ultrathin, flexible, hybrid imaging devices that enable cross-sectional visualisation deep inside the body, with cellular resolution, molecular contrast, and high sensitivity.