Printers

[AlexanderB]

Dear Users of biology-online!

I have an important request:
Some time ago ive read about the use of Ink jet printers in the field of biology, for example, tissue engineering.
I took a look at the sites of some researchers and thought that it maybe a good idea to bring together people who are doing this kind of research in biology and interested laymen and experts which are good in modifying/building printers,
also those which are good in both fields.
Actually there is no forum for all these things out there.
I wrote an email to Dr. Paul Calvert, on of the leading scientists in this area, and asked him if an online community, as described above, could be of any help for the researchers.
He said that that is an intersting thought and that there are many researchers out there which would like to use printers if it would be easier.
He also said

Ideally this would be on a website where different research groups could look for advice.

Now i want to build such a site, below you could see the first draft for the structure of this site.

Main site
-Blog
-Forum
--Forum about Biology in general
--Forum about tissue engineering
--Forum about biomimetic materials
--Forum about Printers
---Software
---Electronics
---Interfaces and cables
---Inkjet-heads
---Cartridges
---Motors/Stepper motors
---Feder-systems
---Power Supply
---Plastic housings
---Cleaning Printer Parts
---Other
--forum for guidance (How-to's)
---Video section
---Documents
---Other
--Forum for the exchange of Hardware
---I need/ Iam searching for...
---I have to offer...
---Help with Transport
---Other
--Regional Forums
---North America
---South America
---Europe
---Asia
---Afrika
---Oceania
---Other
--Other Discussions not related to main topic (Offtopic)
--About the Forum
---Suggestions / Feedback
---Technical Support
---News and Updates
-Chat
-Wiki
-List with useful links

Now I want to ask you if you could help me with a few ideas for subforums, or maybe, which subforums would not be of much use.
I also need a simple and memorable name for the domain, ive tried many names but some of them are taken, some, like cytopremo, are available but dont sound good (old greek and latin in a bad combination).
Zytoprint is also available but more german than english.
Do you have some ideas?

thank you for your time,

Alexander B.
(Austria)

[JackBean]

Are you talking about the printers connected to PC, which are printing text on paper? Why should it be differente in biology from other users?

[AlexanderB]

Yes, like the normal ink jet printer you may have at home.

[JackBean]

OK, then why should have biologists special forum about ink jet printers?

[AlexanderB]

I explaind the whole thing in the first post!
Cause many are not that good in the field of "printer hacking", this forum should bring together people from both fields.

[jonmoulton]

There has been some research activity using ink-jet printers to deposit biological and biomimetic materials, for instance as tissue engineering scaffolding. It is a nice controllable method for laying down a 2-D matrix in a particular pattern, or even multiple layers of materials on a substrate such as plastic or paper. I'm curious to learn more about the technique and its applications. However, I have not read enough in this area to help with forum design.

There is, however, one point that perhaps deserves more coverage. Perhaps "cleaning printer parts" should be expanded to cover questions of sterile deposition of materials or perhaps post-deposition sterilization prior to introducing cells to the deposited matrix.

[AlexanderB]

The subforum "cleaning printer parts" is meant to cover all these questions.
I think ill rename it to "cleaning and sterilizing of printer parts"
Thank you for your advice!