 origami membrane for 3D organs. There's a huge need for artificial organs. Kidney is probably the biggest need because it's a huge number of patients who die every year due to kidney failure, a huge number of people on weight lists for kidney transplants, and then people who are on dialysis. It's a terrible procedure to have to go through continuously. An artificial organ really requires a very large surface area to a very small volume. However, the paradox is that the engineering techniques for culturing cells work far better on flat surfaces. And so the motivation to use origami is truly through the folding itself. Because by folding, we can reduce the volume of the artificial organ and keep a very large surface area. Another is to make a shape that is a complete enclosure so that you can have one fluid that's passing through this enclosed shape and perfusing through the surface into the surroundings of the artificial organ itself. Our vision for this project is to use these biocompatible foldable devices in order to provide patients with the kidney function they need. So we bond two membranes together and those membranes in our demo devices are a flat sheet of clear plastic and the actual device will be an electrospun membrane. Then those two membranes are welded together using a laser to selectively heat the pattern for the origami folds. Then you can go back and fill in each one of those panels that's created by those two membranes enclosing a small area. And that's what you would fill with your cells in some kind of matrix that they're suspended in. Liquid drips resembling IV needles fill the network of zig-zagging channels inside the layered membrane. And then that can be cured using a UV light to solidify it so the panels are now stiff and the membrane areas where the welding is is flexible and it can collapse and expand. I think it's extremely uncommon for scientists and engineers to be working with architects, designers on an actual technological innovation path. But this actually at the VICE Institute we actually bring that range of expertise together to attack tough problems and develop new engineering innovations. VICE Institute Harvard University Graduate School of Design