Bowling Green State University is ready to cash in on a technological breakthrough developed in its
School of Art.
Earlier today, the Board of Trustees gave the president’s office the authority to commercialize two
patents related to a 3D printer developed by John Balistreri who teaches ceramics at BGSU.
The printer has been in the works since 2009. Its initial uses were to create ceramic pieces, especially
intricate abstract constructions by Greg Pugh, then a student who has been hired to work on the project.
But Balistreri already saw far wider possible applications for the printer.
Balistreri has been on research leave in Omaha and has continued to work on the printer there. In fall he
told the Sentinel-Tribune he was working with researchers at the University of Nebraska to make
replacement bone.
Using ash from cow bones, hydroxy apitite, the researchers will construct a material to replace thin bone
structures such as those in the skull and face. Researchers envision a material that will take the place
of bone and allow new bone to grow into the replacement.
That’s just one of many uses Balistreri envisions.
The action taken by the trustees gives the president the authority to license use of the two patents.
(Balistreri said in fall that there’s another patent in the works.)

Provost Rodney Rogers said this gives the university more flexibility in ways to market the technology.
“It gives the president the authority to work with a variety of organizations in ways we can
commercialize this.”
It’s part of a push by universities, he said, to profit from “their intellectual property.”
President Mary Ellen Mazey will be able to make agreements on these two patents without further approval
from the trustees.
And while many would think technological developments would come from science and math, the 3D printer
shows that “creativity drives intellectual property that leads to commercialization and value.”
He said Balistreri was “inspiring” in the way he applied his creativity to the problems posed by the
project.