Yang Liu: Improving material discovery processes for biomedical innovation

This photo shows a young Asian man with short black hair wearing a white lab coat and a pair of glasses. He is standing in a lab and holding a prosthetic forearm and hand. — Polymers are used in a wide variety of applications, including medical devices, regenerative medicine, and prosthetics. Graduate student Yang Liu and other engineers work to create polymer materials with optimal properties for their uses. Photo courtesy of Junru Zhang.

This story was written in the spring of 2022 by GRAD 5144 (Communicating Science) student Amanda Darling as part of an assignment to interview a classmate and write a news story about his research.

3D printing and sensor technology may be revolutionizing the way we develop new materials.

Yang Liu, a Ph.D. student working with Dr. Blake Johnson in the Macromolecules Innovation Institute and Department of Industrial Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech, is using 3D printers to develop new materials with potential downstream biomedical applications such as regenerative medicine and prosthetic devices.

While working on his undergraduate degree in China in 2012, majoring in macromolecular materials and engineering, Liu became interested in sensor technology, the use of sensors to collect information about materials through detection of chemical, physical, and biological properties. It was this interest that first drew him to Johnson’s work at Virginia Tech. Over the past three years working with others in Johnson’s Advanced Biomanufacturing and Biosensing Lab, Liu has engaged with interdisciplinary research mainly focused on the co-applications of polymers, 3D printers, and sensors.

Most of his research, Liu says, is divided into two parts: 1) using sensors to investigate 3D printing processes and 2) linking sensors and 3D printing for high-throughput material discovery. When combined, these two goals have broader biomedical applications.

Liu has been a lead designer and implementer in his research, which has involved collaboration with other top universities including Clemson University and the University of Michigan. One of a number of his ongoing projects includes using sensors to develop real-time monitoring of the 3D printing process. To speed up the detection of new materials, he has combined sensors with 3D printing processes to develop new methods for high-throughput material discovery. 3D printers and sensors revolutionize traditional material discovery by accelerating it to rates higher than previously conceivable.

Liu’s interest in polymers grew out of their applications for many different fields. Because sensors are able to detect many interesting and complex properties of materials, he was drawn by the sensor technology available in Johnson’s lab. Liu’s studies help him understand the capability of this technology and lay the groundwork for expanding material discovery even beyond biomedical purposes.