Microfluidic fibre extrusion for bone replacement

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In most cases, when a young person breaks a bone, it tends to heal quickly and efficiently. As people get older, there are more problems associated with their bones:- Older bones are more prone to fracture- Joints become painful as a result of wear and tear- Older people are less agile and therefore more prone to have an accident that can result in bone breakage - Older broken bones heal more slowly than young bones- The reduced mobility that is associated with waiting for bones to heal, reduces agility further.....................In the UK, we have a low birth rate and people are tending to live longer. Thus, our population is ageing at a rapid rate and so all of the problems outlined above become more pressing.There has been much progress in the field of biomaterials in attempts to produce materials for bone therapies to address some of these problems. However, ideal solutions continue to evade us.In Nature, living systems produce mineral structures like bones, teeth and shells by bringing together organic and inorganic materials. Engineers have clever tools such as microfluidics that enable reactions to be carried out on a minute scale. This project aims to test whether or not microfluidics can be used to produce organic fibres with mineral associated (just like in Nature). The mineral-fibre complex could then be used as a temporary scaffold that would encourage the body to produce new bone, thus forming the ultimate bone therapy material.