Due to the pandemic crisis medical staff and scientists all over the globe joined forces to fight a common enemy - COVID19. The MMK PhD students are continually contributing their time and skills to help out the cause. While some PhD students were mass-producing hand sanitizers for the local hospitals, others were involved in a 3D printing process of protective visors designated for the medical staff in Sweden.

Packed visors

The 3D printing process of the visors was conducted in Prof. Aji Mathew’s lab in collaboration with Prof. Jiayin Yuan’s group. The 3D printing procedure was based on the guidelines provided by a Stockholm-based company 3DVerkstan AB (https://3dverkstan.se/protective-visor/) - the initiator of the entire idea. At MMK lab the visors were printed on the Ultimaker S5 printer using the biodegradable polymer polylactic acid (PLA). The printing process was driven by PhD student Natalia Fijol with help from other MMK employees: Postdoc researcher Dr. Miao Zhang, PhD students Andrea Aguilar Sanchez and Sadaf Saeedi Garakani as well as Dr. Blanca Jalvo from ACES. The visors were shipped to the administrative establishment in Stockholm from where they will be distributed to the medical facilities in need, all over the country. The MMK members of staff involved in the project are willing to continuously contribute with the production of the protective visors as long as they are needed.