Engineering Fellowships for Growth: Building advanced materials to treat vision loss

生物材料科学和工程方面的创新有可能对眼科疾病治疗的发展作出重大贡献，从而减轻全球社会视力丧失的负担。这些发展的基础是先进材料的设计和生产，这些材料具有驱动克服疾病破坏性所需的生物反应的关键特性。为了实现这些成果，迫切需要工程师、科学家和临床医生结合他们的知识和专业知识来解决21世纪的眼科保健问题，特别是人口老龄化问题。该奖学金将发展四个关键领域：1)使用环保制造工艺设计和开发新型隐形眼镜材料；克服与硅基水凝胶相关的问题，并允许将生物活性分子用于伤口愈合和抗角膜感染的抗菌药物输送；2)设计先进的凝胶来替代受损的角膜；克服目前与胶原蛋白或羊膜等生物材料相关的问题，具有更好的控制潜力，降低免疫原性，从而更快地将产品转化为临床，3)使用新型大气针等离子体开发用于结膜细胞移植的功能化表面，用于空间分解表面修饰，而无需高真空制造；4)开发细胞扩增的受控底物，使用表面设计来模拟细胞外环境，在明确的GMP条件下促进细胞扩增，以便在治疗应用中更快地翻译这些细胞。这项奖学金将使我能够利用我的专业知识开发用于眼科应用的先进材料，并将许多学者的努力协调成一个主要的活动中心，并使我能够提供设计新型基质的专业知识，以推进英国和国际上几个小组正在开发的先进眼病细胞疗法。将先进材料方面的专业知识与这些团体结合在一起，将产生世界领先的研究成果，具有工业开发和临床转化的潜力，能够对英国经济和医疗保健产生重大影响。这项奖学金将使我能够发挥我在大学里的领导作用，以现有的跨学院合作为基础，通过我的指导角色，培养下一代学者，以履行未来的领导职务，并确保眼科生物工程在大学的持续发展。它符合大学的战略重点，并将加强“未来材料”，这是我们的7个机构研究主题之一。我与工业界的现有合作将为进一步将新技术应用于商业领域提供基础，我与皇家利物浦大学医院圣保罗眼科部门的临床医生的密切合作将使我能够接触到临床眼科社区。我将利用我现有的国际声誉来加强利物浦和英国作为世界一流研究中心的地位，在眼科生物材料和工程方面产生影响。对于一个人来说，失明估计会造成2万英镑的经济影响。就英国经济而言，每年的直接医疗成本和诸如无薪看护和失业等间接成本约为65亿英镑。在情感上，视力的丧失对个人来说是毁灭性的。这个已建立的职业奖学金将为建立一个卓越的眼科生物工程中心提供平台，并有能力为解决这些问题做出重大贡献。

Innovations in biomaterials science and engineering have the potential to make a significant contribution to the development of treatments for ophthalmic diseases and thus to reduce the burden of vision loss on the global community. Underpinning these developments is the design and production of advanced materials with key features that drive the biological response required to overcome the destructive nature of the disease. To achieve these outcomes there is an urgent need for engineers, scientists and clinicians to combine their knowledge and expertise to address the eye healthcare problems of the 21st century especially with an ageing population. Four key areas will be developed within this Fellowship: 1) The design and development of novel materials for contact lenses using environmentally friendly manufacturing processes; overcoming problems associated with silicone-based hydrogels and permitting modification to incorporate bioactive molecules for wound healing and antimicrobial agent delivery combating corneal infection, 2) The design of advanced gels to replace damaged corneas; overcoming current problems associated with biological materials such as collagen or amniotic membrane with the potential for greater control, reduced immunogenicity and thus more rapid product translation to the clinic, 3) The development of functionalised surfaces for conjunctival cell transplantation using novel atmospheric pin plasmas for spatially resolved surface modification without requiring high vacuum manufacturing, 4) The development of controlled substrates for cell expansion using surfaces designed to model the extracellular environment promoting expansion under well-defined GMP conditions to allow a more rapid translation of these cells in therapeutic applications. This fellowship will allow me to use my expertise to develop advanced materials for ophthalmic applications and to co-ordinate the efforts of a number of academics into a major hub of activity and allow me to provide the expertise in the design of novel substrates to take forward advanced cell therapies for eye disease being developed by several groups both within the UK and internationally. Bringing together expertise in advanced materials with these groups will produce world leading research output with the potential for industrial exploitation and clinical translation capable of making a substantial impact on the UK economy and healthcare. This fellowship will allow me to exploit my leadership role within the University to build on the existing cross-faculty collaborations already established and through my mentoring roles to develop the next generation of academics to fulfil future leadership positions and ensure continuation of the strength of ophthalmic bioengineering at the University. It fits with the University's strategic priorities, and will enhance 'Materials for the Future' which is one of our 7 Institutional research themes. My existing collaborations with industry will provide a basis for further exploitation of new technologies into the commercial sector and my strong collaboration with clinicians at St Paul's Eye Unit, Royal Liverpool University Hospital, will allow me to reach out to the clinical ophthalmic community. I will exploit my existing international reputation to strengthen the position of Liverpool and the UK as a focus for leading world class research with impact in ophthalmic biomaterials and engineering. For an individual the loss of sight is estimated to have a financial impact of £20k pa. For the UK economy the annual cost is around £6.5 billion in terms of direct healthcare costs and indirect costs such as unpaid carers and loss of employment. Emotionally the loss of vision can be devastating to the individual. This established career fellowship will provide the platform from which to build a centre of excellence in ophthalmic bioengineering with the capability to make a substantial contribution to addressing these problems.