A 3D-printed artificial blood vessel with the strength and flexibility of real blood vessels has been developed in part through the work of Yuxiang Zhu, who recently earned a doctoral degree in the School of Manufacturing Systems and Networks, part of the Fulton Schools. The achievement helps to provide a printed vascular graft with a flower-mimicking design that overcomes the drawback of existing grafts that cannot fully replicate how our blood vessels respond to movement and stress. Safer and more effective cardiovascular disease treatments and fewer bypass surgery failure rates are expected to result for the achievement. The project’s long-term goal is to see the grafts move from laboratory development to use in medical clinics.