A novel precision-engineered microfluidic chip for wear particle research

该项目旨在开发1-从体外脊柱植入物中产生临床相关磨损颗粒的新方案；2-制造具有定制机械，材料和生物特性的新型微流控3D芯片脊柱植入物的技术框架。这将提供一种目前无法获得的具有成本效益的工具，用于研究磨损颗粒对健康椎间盘细胞的影响。我们希望我们的技术框架能够成为生物医学工程师、生物学家和生物工程师共同工作的宝贵工具，并生成临床相关的体外数据，以支持脊柱植入物设计、制造和安全性的优化。

This project aims to develop 1- novel protocols to generate clinically-relevant wear particles from spinal implants in-vitro and 2- a technological framework for the fabrication of a novel microfluidic 3D spinal implant-on-a-chip with tailored mechanical, material and biological properties. This will provide a cost-effective tool, currently unavailable, that allows investigation into the impact of wear particles on healthy spinal disc cells. We expect our technological framework to become an invaluable tool for biomedical engineers, biologists, and bio-engineers to work together and generate clinically relevant in-vitro data that supports optimisation for spinal implant design, fabrication, and safety.