# ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING OF PDMS MICROFLUIDICS

> **NIH NIH R44** · PHASE, INC. · 2024 · $136,021

## Abstract

Simeon Brown, Phase’s senior technician for the last two years, has been instrumental in our
company’s technical success and will play an integral part not only in our Phase II grant but also
in developing the company’s 3D printing commercialization capabilities beyond the timeline of this
grant. Brown in his role plays a key part in developing the process and parameters of our 3D
printing platform; performs experiments to understand the relationship between the materials and
the structure in the 3D PDMS system; fine-tunes parameters that ensure dimensional accuracy
of the microfluidic devices; and oversees all the mechanics in the design of Phase’s new 3D
printing of microfluidic platforms. In the coming year, he will further refine his skills using robotics
to develop full laboratory automation for device interface and creation using new hardware we will
purchase.
Brown is regularly developing novel approaches to develop the technology through his use of
optical microscopes, plasma cleaners, and stereolithography 3D printers while honing his skills in
software that include Autodesk Fusion and imaging processing software of Olympus microscopes.
Brown will be instrumental in carrying out the remainder of the grant.
Building upon our successful Phase I effort — during which we demonstrated the ability of our
patent-pending 3D PDMS process to 3D print MF devices from conventional PDMS — this
Phase II effort focuses on developing a pilot-scale commercial 3D PDMS system and using the
3D PDMS process to fabricate cutting edge in vitro blood-brain-barrier models for testing by our
collaborators at Virginia Tech. They recently developed a MF BBB model containing a nanofiber
basement membrane mimic which demonstrates a superior ability to recapitulate the in vivo
BBB architecture. In Phase II, the team will optimize the architecture of the nanomembranes
and then design and demonstrate a commercially producible 3D PDMS MF nanomembrane
BBB model with integrated electrodes. We will also collaborate with the Nadkarni group at
Harvard MGH to characterize the PDMS curing kinetics in 3D PDMS printing using laser
speckle rheology. Aim 1: Operational Pilot-Scale 3D PDMS System. The objective of this aim is
to design and a build pilot-scale 3D PDMS system. Milestone 1A: 3D PDMS Simulation & Model
Accurately Predict Curing within +/-10%; Milestone 1A: 3D PDMS Simulation Model Accurately
Predicts Curing within +/-10%; Milestone 1B: 3D PDMS unit achieves 200 mm3 /hr build rate for
MF device. Aim 2: 3D Printed Nanofiber Blood-Brain-Barrier Model. The objective of this aim is
to 3D print a highly reproducible BBB model which incorporates a nanofiber membrane and
integrated TEER electrodes. Milestone 2A: Transport master curves for nanofiber membranes
developed; Milestone 2B: Optimized nanofiber BBB model demonstrated by a 20% increase in
TEER values for a coculture sample as compared to a monoculture sample.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 11017667
- **Project number:** 3R44TR003968-03S1
- **Recipient organization:** PHASE, INC.
- **Principal Investigator:** Jeffrey Schultz
- **Activity code:** R44 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $136,021
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2023-04-19 → 2026-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11017667

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 11017667, ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING OF PDMS MICROFLUIDICS (3R44TR003968-03S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-27 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/11017667. Licensed CC0.

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