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Now in her 22nd year at UConn, Kuhn is directing the Beekley Lab for Biosymmetrix, where she\u2019s developing a patent-pending process for using a 3D bioprinter to \u201cprint\u201d personalized breast prosthetics for cancer survivors. The multi-layered structure of the prosthetic will improve the quality and comfort of people\u2019s lives after breast cancer.<\/p>\n
Kuhn came up with the idea for the breast prosthetic when her colleague Jan Figueroa, administrative program assistant at UConn Health, underwent a unilateral mastectomy following a battle with breast cancer. Figueroa chose not to undergo reconstructive surgery for an implant and opted for a non-implanted breast prosthetic instead.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was offered two choices of prosthetics. Both were uncomfortable, moved all over, were never symmetrical, did not breathe, and did not form to my body,\u201d Figueroa recalls. \u201cI told Liisa what I was going through with a shop my insurance carrier recommended, and how I was treated.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kuhn listened.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought \u2013 I can do something about that. I\u2019m in the School of Dental Medicine and I know dentists are taking digital images of patients\u2019 teeth and using computer aided design and computer aided manufacturing to create a crown, sized exactly to the exact shape and size needed,\u201d she says. \u201cSo why couldn\u2019t we apply the same idea and create customized prosthetics?\u201d<\/p>\n
Kuhn learned to take 3D photos of a woman\u2019s chest and worked with a CAD designer to convert the images to a file that could be 3D printed. Those with a single mastectomy, such as Figueroa, would have their remaining breast scanned while in a bra and digitized and \u201cmirror imaged\u201d in the software against the surgery side, producing a 3D model that fits perfectly against her chest with the correct size.<\/p>\n
3D bioprinting is used by several faculty members at UConn Health for creating small pieces of cartilage, liver, or heart, but Kuhn needed something much larger to 3D print breast prosthetics.\u00a0 Oncologists Dr. Susan Tannenbaum and Dr. Christina Stevenson from the Carole and Ray Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center<\/a>, and the Dean of the College of Engineering supported Kuhn\u2019s application to the Connecticut Breast Health Initiative, and it was funded in 2021, resulting in the purchase of a specialized, four-foot-tall bioprinter platform<\/a> to benefit the patients of the Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center.<\/p>\n Unlike a regular 3D printer that fabricates objects using a solid plastic filament, the bioprinter extrudes an elastomer gel that results in a lightweight, flexible, and porous product with an open cell foam design. She coined the name of the process \u201cBiosymmetrix.\u201d<\/p>\n And Figueroa received the first Biosymmetrix prosthetic. “With a few modifications, Dr. Kuhn’s prosthetics are shaping up\u2014no pun intended\u2014to give all of us breast cancer survivors back our confidence to wear clothing we could not prior to this,” she says. “Now, I can comfortably wear a t-shirt or anything I was told I should forget on doing.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWith a few modifications, Dr. Kuhn’s prosthetics are shaping up\u2014no pun intended\u2014to give all of us breast cancer survivors back our confidence to wear clothing we could not prior to this. Now, I can comfortably wear a t-shirt or anything I was told I should forget on doing.\u201d \u2014 Jan Figueroa, cancer survivor<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Since completing Figueroa\u2019s prosthetic, more than 80 women have requested a customized breast prosthetic from Kuhn\u2019s lab, however she\u2019s only been able to provide one for 14 women so far.<\/p>\n As Kuhn has learned through \u201cthousands of failed attempts,\u201d depositing the thin elastomer with an intricate lattice-like pattern with 200-some layers, has deemed difficult. Like a hot glue gun, the gel often doesn\u2019t stay in a unform size, and any build-up can cause blobs of unwanted filament. In addition, a single print can take eight hours to complete.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are helping the bioprinter company to optimize their robot arm\u2019s capabilities because the technology for large format gel printing is not fully developed, and that\u2019s why it\u2019s not being done by others throughout the world, yet,\u201d she acknowledges.<\/p>\n Once the process is perfected, Kuhn hopes to establish a 3D printing \u201cfarm\u201d and catch up on the backlog of orders.<\/p>\n \u201cDr. Kuhn cared about me as a person, not such a test subject, and she heard me,\u201d Figueroa says. \u201cWe became not just two people who worked in the same building, but I like to say, friends. Liisa is now part of my group that took me from diagnosis, to treatment, to surgery, to giving me back confidence and self-esteem.\u201d<\/p>\n Kuhn, whose other research interests focus on drug delivery and bone regeneration, including developing customized bone grafts with controlled drug release to rejuvenate bone healing in older women, hopes the prosthetics are another way to help women live more comfortable lives.<\/p>\n \u201cWomen\u2019s positive response to the prosthetics makes all the hard work worthwhile,\u201d Kuhn says. \u201cI feel so lucky to have found a meaningful way to use my engineering skills to help these women.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n
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