Title: Laser printing as an enabling technology for flexible electronics and regenerative medicine
Speaker: Ioanna Zergoti, Professor at the School of Applied, Mathematical and Physical Sciences of the National Technical University of Athens
Faculty Host: John Kymissis
Abstract
Laser-Induced Forward Transfer (LIFT) has evolved over the past three decades into a versatile and powerful direct-write technique for material microfabrication and bioprinting for biomedical applications and sensing. Originally demonstrated for metallic thin films, LIFT has expanded to encompass a wide range of materials, including polymers, dielectrics, biomolecules, and living cells. This flexibility has enabled applications spanning electronics, photonics, biosensing, and tissue engineering.
In this talk, we will discuss on the recent advances in scalable printing and additive manufacturing adaptation. Special attention will be given to LIFT’s role in next-generation biofabrication where its unique non-contact nature provides critical advantages in regenerative medicine.
Finally, we will discuss emerging trends and future directions, including hybrid additive–subtractive laser approaches, integration with machine learning for process optimization, and novel applications in flexible electronics, micro-optics, and organ-on-chip technologies. LIFT continues to stand as a key enabling technology at the intersection of laser processing and manufacturing, with vast potential for innovation in both industrial and biomedical domains. We will discuss PhosPrint’s current first in humans clinical trial on orthotopic ileal neobladder with bioprinted autologous urothelium.
Bio
Ioanna Zergioti is a Professor at the School of Applied Mathematical and Physical Sciences of the National Technical University of Athens, where she leads the Materials Laser Microprocessing group, and the founder and CEO of PhosPrint S.A. She studied Physics at the University of Crete and earned her PhD from FORTH-IESL, working on pulsed laser deposition of nanocrystalline thin films. Her early career took her to UC Berkeley, the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen, and Philips CFT in Eindhoven before she joined NTUA in 2003. Her research spans additive manufacturing by laser printing of advanced materials for flexible electronics and wearables and laser bioprinting for biomedical applications, with over 200 peer-reviewed papers, nine book chapters, 15 patents on laser transfer processes, an h-index above 40, and more than €15 million in EU project funding over the past decade. Since 2022 she has led PhosPrint, an ICCS/NTUA spin-off developing laser bioprinters for tissue regeneration and biosensing, supported by the EIC Accelerator and private funding.