{
  "abstract": "Standard cell-culture ware is mass-produced in fixed designs, whereas many tissue-engineering workflows require custom inserts, lids, chambers, or patterned substrates, especially during early-stage research and method development. Conventional fabrication methods for cell culture accessories involve injection molding and machining, which are too costly and time-consuming to implement for producing custom designs in small batches, and/or while testing the usefulness of a new design before mass production. Here, we propose polycarbonate (PC) thermoforming as a solution for creating customized transparent and autoclavable accessories. We demonstrate that optimized preheating of PC overcomes issues with bubbling during thermoforming. The use of high heat deflection temperature (HDT) resins allows these PC devices to be thermoformed off molds created by Digital Light Processing (DLP) 3D prints, enabling rapid prototyping of the PC. Using this approach, we fabricated custom PC well plate inserts, staining chambers and other custom accessories. We next validated the cytocompatibility of these devices by demonstrating culture and cardiomyocyte differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC). Finally, we demonstrated the utility of thermoformed PC for creating 3D engineered tissues (cardiospheres). These results establish DLP-assisted PC thermoforming as a rapid, low-cost workflow for fabricating transparent, autoclavable, user-defined cell-culture accessories during prototyping and small-batch bioengineering applications.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Department of Biomedical Engineering, McKelvey School of Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America.",
    "Center for Cardiovascular Research, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America."
  ],
  "article_type": "Research Article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 4,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Ganesh Malayath",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-3455-7512"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Fei Wang",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-0890-4595"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Chao Zhou"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Nathaniel Huebsch",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-3329-0214"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/a9beccd84y3d3.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1371/journal.pone.0361065",
  "fulltext_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13704808",
  "id": "a9beccd84y3d3",
  "issns": [
    "1932-6203"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0361065",
  "language": "eng",
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "openalex",
      "2204|3D Printing in Biomedical Research"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Anatomy/Biological tissue/Muscle tissue/Muscle cells/Cardiomyocytes"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Bioengineering/Tissue engineering"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Cell biology/Cellular types/Animal cells/Muscle cells/Cardiomyocytes"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Cell biology/Cellular types/Animal cells/Stem cells/Induced pluripotent stem cells"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Developmental biology/Cell differentiation"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Engineering and technology/Bioengineering/Tissue engineering"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Engineering and technology/Electronics engineering/3D printing"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Engineering and technology/Equipment/Optical equipment"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Medicine and health sciences/Anatomy/Biological tissue/Muscle tissue/Muscle cells/Cardiomyocytes"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Physical sciences/Materials science/Materials/Optical materials"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Research and analysis methods/Biological cultures/Cell cultures"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7223708062",
  "pdf_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13704808?pdf=render",
  "pmcid": "PMC13704808",
  "pmid": "42932324",
  "published": "2026-10-26",
  "publisher": "Public Library of Science",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/a9beccd84y3d3.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:17:17Z",
      "native_id": "10.1371/journal.pone.0361065",
      "source": "plos",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0361065"
    },
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:22:01Z",
      "native_id": "MED:42932324",
      "source": "europepmc",
      "url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42932324"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "plos:stem cells",
      "subfield": "developmental-biology"
    },
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "plos:bioengineering",
      "subfield": "systems-synthetic"
    },
    {
      "field": "medicine",
      "origin": "plos:anatomy",
      "subfield": "physiology"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Rapid thermoforming of polycarbonate cell culture accessories from 3D printed molds",
  "title_text": "Rapid thermoforming of polycarbonate cell culture accessories from 3D printed molds",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:22:01Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/a9beccd84y3d3",
  "venue": "PLOS One",
  "versions": []
}