Current Research Projects
Emerging manufacturing processes are at the heart of the Dalton Lab, to produce advanced biomedical materials that can be translated into an application.
We specialize in melt electrowriting but also hybridize other advanced processes to create new objects with distinct properties that outperform existing gold standards.
In particular, we work with 3D printing technologies towards full digitization of biomaterials, allowing rapid research cycles and innovative biomedical products.
We initiated an open-source 3D printer hardware ecosystem to improve accessibility of melt electrowriting. We built the “MEWron” on the back of the phenomenal Voron Design platform to improve functionality, usability, and capabilities of this technology increases adoption and helps move high resolution additive fabrication techniques further.
Expect anything to happen in this space! The principle of the lab is to not do incremental research but follow the threads of research which are capable of transformative change. We want to be disruptive, we want to invent new fields of research, and we achieve this through curiosity and taking note of the times we look at data and say “That's weird!”.
This is why it is difficult to determine where our next breakthrough comes from, and which projects in the lab drive step-changes in manufacturing capabilities. It could be in microfibers, nanofibers, skin research, hydrogels or structural designs. We LOVE taking tools from other fields and applying them in ours to not reinvent the wheel and perform impactful research that is also economical.
Pushing the envelope of fabrication includes modulating mechanics, materials, printing conditions to selectively tailor scaffold properties and provide unique solutions to a variety of engineering challenges. We want to transform expectations of what's possible.
We fabricate new materials, so that they can be applied to a spectrum of applications. We currently have projects on muscle, tendon, skin and nerve repair as well as glioblastoma and spinal cord injury research.
University of Oregon Collaborations
Our superpower is collaboration and we work with labs across the University of Oregon. We have worked and published our research with:
The Willett Lab
Bioengineering
The Lindberg Lab
Bioengineering
The Hettiaratchi Lab
Bioengineering
The Guldberg Lab
Bioengineering
The Ong Lab
Bioengineering
The Jasti Lab
Chemistry
The Polite Lab
The Buson Lab
Design
We are always looking for new collaborations, across academia and industry. If you are interested in working together, please reach out.
Featured Publications
2026
Open-source computer vision software for advanced visualisation and quantification of melt electrowriting jets
Virtual and Physical Prototyping
2024
A Versatile and High-Resolution Hydrogel Platform for Volumetric Additive Manufacturing Based on Poly(ethylene glycol) Diacrylate and Alginate Blends
Advanced Materials Technologies