---
title: "MIT’s 3D-Printed Shape-Shifting Objects Could Revolutionize Medicine"
description: "Using light, a team of MIT researchers were able to print 3D structures that “remember” their original shapes. Even after being stretched, twisted, and bent at extreme angles, the structures sprang back to their original forms within seconds of being heated to a certain temperature “sweet spot.”"
date: "2016-08-29"
modified: "2016-11-29"
authors:
  - name: "Jasmine Solana"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jasminesolana"
url: "https://futurism.com/mits-3d-printed-shape-shifting-objects-could-revolutinize-medicine"
categories:
  - "3D Printing"
  - "Future Materials"
  - "Health & Medicine"
  - "Medical"
  - "RX and Medicine"
  - "Science & Energy"
tags:
  - "3d printing"
  - "microstereolithography"
---

# MIT’s 3D-Printed Shape-Shifting Objects Could Revolutionize Medicine

![Default Futurism featured image](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Futurism-Filler-Image.jpg>)

## SWEET SPOT

Beyond [3D-printed dinners](<https://futurism.com/worlds-first-3d-printing-restaurant-to-open-in-london>), additive manufacturing has helped create artificial jaws, better prosthetics, and even [brain tumors](<https://futurism.com/to-kill-cancer-scientists-are-3d-printing-brain-tumors>). [Researchers at MIT](<http://news.mit.edu/2016/3-d-printed-structures-remember-shapes-drug-delivery-solar-panel-0826>) have found a way to print 3D structures that remember their original shapes within seconds of being heated at a specific temperature “sweet spot," paving the way towards developing tiny drug capsules that open upon early signs of infection.

Researchers often turn to 3D printing to fabricate shape-memory structures since the technology lets them to custom-design structures with relatively fine detail. The only problem is that conventional 3D printers come with size restrictions—the structures’ details can’t go any smaller than a few millimeters, and the restriction limits how fast the material can recover its original shape.

## MICROSTEREOLITHOGRAPHY

To be able to print shape-memory structures with even finer details, Nicholas X. Fang, associate professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, and his colleagues combined a new 3D printing process called microstereolithography with a special polymer mix that hardens or softens depending on variant thermal conditions. This, in turn, enabled them to create tiny structures—from small coils and multi-material flowers, to an inch-tall replica of the Eiffel tower that spring back to their original form when exposed to heat within the range of 40°C to 180°C. The printed objects can also be stretched and twisted up to three times their original length without breaking.

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/thing7.gif>)
*MIT*

Fang said shape-memory polymers that can predictably morph in response to temperature can be useful for a number of applications, from soft actuators that turn solar panels toward the sun, to tiny drug capsules.

“We ultimately want to use body temperature as a trigger,” Fang said. “If we can design these polymers properly, we may be able to form a drug delivery device that will only release medicine at the sign of a fever.”