Research Projects

Natural self-healing does not take place within a patient’s lifetime when critical bone defects exceed 2 cm. Conventional autologous repair requires multiple surgeries, the allograft neither offers structural integrity nor osteogenic properties. Additionally, allograft present challenges such as limited donor availability and the risk of disease transmission. Therefore, the clinical intervention of critical bone defect is challenging due to limited quantity and quality of the bone replacing materials. It also imposes significant clinical and socioeconomic burdens, as patients often require multiple procedures and extended hospital stays. In addition, the high risk of infection following scaffold implantation leads to significant pain, discomfort, and even amputation. World Health Organization (WHO) estimates 10 million lives a year will be at risk of infection by 2050. Therefore, the risk of infection linked to implantation demands the greatest attention. The emergence of bone scaffolds has enabled new possibilities in bone tissue engineering for the repair of large bone defects. Typically, the scaffolds used for bone tissue engineering are fabricated using self-assembly, phase separation, electrospinning, solvent casting, freeze-drying, emulsion templating, gas-forming and melt moulding. However, these methods have their limitations on the scaffold parameters like porosity, porous size and geometry. Also, the major concern is the incapability to develop scaffolds with a highly interconnected porous structure. In recent years, researchers have started utilising additive manufacturing (AM) or 3D printing for the fabrication of tissue engineering scaffolds. Additive manufacturing can fabricate porous scaffolds (porosity greater than 50%; pore size: 150 - 300 microns) on-demand close to the point-of-care personalised for the morphology of the lost bone. Such scaffolds can provide the necessary mechanical performance along with the required permeability for nutrient supply and bone tissue regeneration. Hence, there is an imminent need for osteogenic and biodegradable as well as antimicrobial AM biomaterials for tissue engineering which the project aims to deliver. The ambition, therefore, is the ‘bench to bedside’ development and pre-clinical validation of Iron - Manganese (Fe-Mn) + Polyhydroxybutyrate – Poly glutamic acid (PHB-PGA) biodegradable osteogenic and infection resistant bone scaffolds that can be 3D printed based on patient-specific data. The proposed research looks at an innovative biodegradable material that can be optimised to develop scaffolds using extrusion-based 3D printing technology to achieve higher values mechanical properties and optimum degradation rate. The proposed project is expected to result in the development of a novel biodegradable scaffold combining Fe-Mn and PHB-PGA, optimized for bone tissue engineering. Targeted to fabricated scaffolds will have pore size of 150 to 300 μm), porosity value of greater than 50% and suitable shape with highly interconnected pores as well as yield strength of 10-15 MPa. Also, the research will provide a comprehensive understanding of the scaffold’s mechanical properties, degradation rates, and biocompatibility, along with demonstrating enhanced bone regeneration and vascularization in animal models. Additionally, the study will produce 3D printing process guidelines for scaffolds with tunable properties, paving the way for commercialization in orthopaedic applications especially critical or large bone defect repairs.